Now I don’t really know what to think.
From what I saw (the first 45 minutes of Canadian leaders’ debate and about 15 or 20 minutes of American veeps’ debate), I feel like I’m far less able to predict the outcomes than I was a few hours ago.
Ironically though, the “making a turn” metaphor in my previous post actually means more to me now, in a couple of different ways.
These races are heading into their final laps. As in NASCAR, finishing strategy has a lot to do with straightaway power, but it has a lot to do with luck — not getting in a crash, nor letting a crash hit you. Pit strategy is even more important, and luck plays a big part in that as well: Will Dion’s risky adjustments give him the momentum to catch up, or hobble him even more?
These are things I don’t know and don’t even care to guess at. It looked like the leaders all did a formidable job of looking strong, assertive, tough, and sincere for their base supporters. But I am absolutely clueless as to how the Canadian debates will play out with moderates and undecideds.
After watching the opening half-hour of the Canadian debate — which I have to admit was truly exciting (I’m not joking) and made me proud to be Canadian – I started to get a little burned-out by it all.
The economic debate was great because it is a relatively fresh and vital issue, but as the debate moved on through the environment and into health care (and whatever came after that, I’m assuming) I felt like they were getting into a lot of stale old wonky points that the leaders have given so many ghostwritten speeches on they don’t even remember why they had those ideas in the first place — like aging singers going through their back catalogues because that’s what their fans expect to hear.
So I switched to the Biden-Palin debate. I came in at the foreign policy segment, as Palin was saying something about Afghanistan. I left when they were talking about something else. I don’t remember what. All I know is it couldn’t have mattered less.
I thought Biden was roughly what you’d expect a vice presidential candidate to be – a professional politician – and Palin was roughly what we’ve come to expect Palin to be. I’d put her performance tonight halfway between the acceptance speech and the network interviews (i.e. halfway between scripted and challenged, which is exactly where the debate would be classified).
This post from Andrew Sullivan looks like a decent roundup of different reactions from around the web and across the political spectrum. It’s got all the opinions I’d ever need or want to hear about the debate.
First, Fallows thought the moderation was weak, there was little back-and-forth, while Massie and Crowley point out Palin was reading from cue cards. (Certainly a far, far cry from the Canadian debate I just switched from, where everything was very confrontational, natural, and off-the-cuff.)
From the other reactions, something that stood out was that expectations for Palin were so low, her performance is being evaluated in roughly the same way we’d judge high schoolers (or younger) in extracurricular debate, where contestants are told which side of the topic they have to argue for and evaluation is all about rhetoric and delivery.
For example, Marc Ambimber reminds me of an eleventh grade English teacher when he writes, ”As the debate wound on, Palin seemed less agile when it came to constructing sentences and answers. Lots of key phrases, weird placement of conjunctions, so the gist of what she was saying was there, but it wasn’t terribly clear.”
Meanwhile, most of the partisan conservative reactions were thrilled – much like doting parents who think their kid performed wonderfully because she didn’t fall flat on her face.
The reaction I agree with most is from Ben Smith at The Politico: “My quick take is that Palin passed a pass-fail test… she likely returned herself to the same status as Biden and every other running mate in memory: Not, ultimately, a major factor at the polls.”
And that feels like the culminating moment — my own turning point — from the past four weeks I’ve spent observing and commenting on politics and the economy. It was fun, and I learned a lot, but I’m burned-out, and I don’t see how my style of thinking can generate or gain much insight about the final few laps of these races. From now until the respective election days, it’s all about running hard and not falling down. There’s no educational value there.
The economy is a little different. Here I have an opportunity to build on the ideas I’ve been developing for the past year (which have been almost completely validated by events), but it means stepping back out from the day-to-day so I can read books again… and write books?
Ya, I’ve got to get that done and out of the way, eventually.
But one thing I want to do first is work on my writers’ craft — specifically storytelling and visualizing – so I might have some pretty corny posts in the next little while as I work on my narrative and observational skills. Right now I hardly know where to start — but consider that a little over a year ago I didn’t know how I would learn to make my writing relevant to real events.
I think I figured that out. Now it’s time to turn again to another challenge.
