Is this a joke?

In 1960 I watched the first ever televised presidential debate. The debate was between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy. I was 21-years old, newly married, and looking forward to taking part in my first national election. An estimated 80 million viewers watched that first debate, mostly on black-and-white TV screens. Few if any of us could have imagined the impact that television would have on American politics. As the PBS special “Debating our Destiny” points out, it had an immediate impact as well.

“It gave John Fitgerald Kennedy a golden opportunity to introduce himself to millions of Americans all at once. For Vice President Nixon, however, it probably was a major political miscalculation that cost him the election. Nixon had been sick and his advisers urged him not to debate Kennedy. He was leading in the polls and they feared sharing a debate stage with Kennedy could give the young senator equal standing in the eyes of voters.” Most people who watched the debate on TV believed Kennedy had won while the much smaller radio audience believed that Nixon had won. Public image would matter from this point on in the political arena.

I bring this up today because of the Sarah Palin phenomena. Bob and I did not watch the vice-presidential debate on television… rather we listened to it on the radio. Thus we missed the rolled eyes, winks, brilliant smile, and Alaska beauty queen good looks of the GOP vice-presidential candidate. Instead we listened to the questions and answers. We listened for substance. Eugene Robinson, Washington Post columnist, called the VP Debate: “The strangest I've ever seen… one of Biden presenting facts and Palin countering with… saying stuff.” Bob Herbert of the New York Times wrote, “This is such a serious moment in American history that it’s hard to believe that someone with Ms. Palin’s limited skills could possibly be playing a leadership role.” The New York Times editorial staff reached this conclusion, “In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice that shattered the image he created for himself as the honest, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. It was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment.”

Many of us are increasingly concerned for the outcome of this election that will determine the future of the United States of America. Will Americans treat it like an American Idol competition and vote for the cleverly packaged representation of Sarah Palin as a “mainstreeter”…just like the Joe Sixpacks and Hockey Moms who sit around a kitchen table wondering how they are going to pay the mortgage and for health insurance? (The Palin household assets are reported to be worth at least 1.2 million.) A frontier woman, mother of five who shoots moose and wolves, has been featured on the cover of Vogue magazine and just happens to govern the state of Alaska. That’s quite an image, but does it qualify her to deal with world affairs and possibly to become the president of the United States. Palin is certainly not in the same league as the young John F. Kennedy, and I wonder as Maureen Dowd (NYTimes) does, “Can likable still trump knowledgeable at such a vulnerable crossroads for the country?”

... PLM