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Friday, October 3, 2008
Palin has become inauthentic
Like many people, I thought Palin did better than expected, but still not very good. But that's probably fine for the McCain people as they just wanted to stop the bleeding.
The one thing I thought was interesting though was what happened to the focus group dial on CNN (WAY too addictive to watch during the debate for my own good) when Palin started doing her cutesy routine. When she said, "doggone it" or "joe six-pack", etc. the numbers nose-dived.
Now this is contrary to conventional wisdom which said that these "authentic", "real-American" inflections were the key to her popularity. As David Brooks said today in the NYTimes, "It took her about 15 seconds to define her persona — the straight-talking mom from regular America — and it was immediately clear that the night would be filled with tales of soccer moms, hockey moms, Joe Sixpacks, main-streeters, “you betchas” and “darn rights.” Somewhere in heaven Norman Rockwell is smiling."
No doubt there's some truth to this in the past five weeks, but what was interesting to me was how it just seemed fake last night as opposed to her convention speech and debates/speeches from Alaska. And the focus groups dial showed it (it was in Ohio by the way, not exactly a bastion of east coast elitism).
I'm from Chicago and have lots of family in Michigan that have that wonderful, earnest, midwest twang (friends from college claimed I have a strong accent, something I deny to this day). And while the sayings and inflections of the upper midwest (and I guess Alaska) are distinct, there was something very cartoonish and inauthentic from Palin. I think she's so conscious of her image that she's overplaying it, and the American people smell a rat.
All Palin really had was her down-to-earth authenticity, and now that's gone. Oh well, that was fun while it lasted.
Update: Andrew Sullivan catches the same thing.
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10 comments:
her cutesy routine made me want to vomit... i was worried as I watched that those folksy little phrases would actually fool ppl, so it's good to hear the "dial" groups (whatever that is) rejected it. am i still worried that her general hotness and boobage will blind ppl to her total lack of qualifications? you betcha!
"And while the sayings and inflections of the upper midwest (and I guess Alaska) are distinct, there was something very cartoonish and inauthentic from Palin. I think she's so conscious of her image that she's overplaying it, and the American people smell a rat."
Wow - You stress authenticity and yet you support Obama. Talk about hypocritical - Oh wait, that's the exact inauthenticity that you seem to like. What a load of crap Chris. Your guy can't even admit he was wrong about the surge or rationally explain a lot of his skeletons... yet you stress authenticty. Chris - You reached an alltime low on this one.
Wow Matt, a little touchy are we :). First off this was Chris's friend Andy, not him, so I'll take happy credit for an "alltime low".
Not sure what the point of your incoherent ramble really was, but you can call Obama a lot of things, but not inauthentic (unless you define inauthentic as being anything you don't like). This is a man who has frankly spent much TOO much time on introspection. Everyone who talks to him or sees him is struck by the fact that he's "comfortable in his own skin" (that's not me saying this, its everyone).
You can say he's a hypocrite, stubborn, radical or wrong, but none of these things means inauthentic. My whole point on Palin was that (like her or not, and I don't) her political narrative had been tied to how "authentic" she was and that's now damaged by her cartoonishness.
p.s. Jeff, I have no answers to boobage.
Matt:
Well, first, I didn't write it.
But you presuppose that Obama is inauthentic. I'd be happy to read an explanation as to why you think that, like the one Andy wrote about Palin.
Re: the surge - watch Obama on O'Reilly. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5wKsGzxkiE
And I'm not sure what "skeletons" you're referring to that haven't been explained, unless you're buying into the Ayers conspiracy theory that National Review has been pushing via Stanley Kurtz.
Chris - I watched the O'Reilly remark and he didn't say that he was wrong about the surge... he said the surge exceeded his expectations.
You say Obama's smart right? Well he's definitely a lawyer. Because that's double speak in which it sounds like an admission but in reality he never admits he's wrong.
Matt - listen again.
Or read this:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/02/fact-check-is-it-true-obama-still-cant-admit-the-surge-works/
we all know Obama answers to corporate paymasters just like everyone else with close ties to the CFR.
Chris - Admitting that the surge worked beyond wildest expectations isn't admitting that he was wrong.
He refuses to say that he was wrong and by saying beyond wildest expectations it implies that his thinking at the time was correct, which has proved false. It's lawyer talk. Trust me.
But Matt - that's just the point. There is nuance in these things - it isn't always black and white, and in fact, it rarely ever is. Stating that the surge was the right decision implies that there were not better decisions that could have been made. And that is exactly what Obama is saying - he still contends that other alternatives would have had greater success.
He can play those hypothetical games for eternity, the fact of the matter is he won't ever admit that he was wrong. That's a George Bush characteristic...
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