Palin To Go On Attack Against Biden On ... Foreign Policy?
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid:
Sarah Palin plans to go on the attack in tonight's debate, hitting Joe Biden for what she will call his foreign policy blunders and penchant for adopting liberal positions on taxes and other issues, according to campaign officials involved in prepping her for tonight's showdown.
Palin attacking Biden, the longtime chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a well-known figure in world capitals, on foreign policy?
That should be interesting. Maybe she can attack over Obama's suggestion that he'd chase terrorists into Pakistan or tout the successes of the Bush Doctrine...well, maybe those aren't such hot ideas, come to think of it.
Here's a thought. Maybe Palin can hit Biden with the charge that he has never run a state where spy-planes take off in the direction of Russia?
Late Update: In all seriousness, it looks like the Palin team hopes to compensate for her yawning gap of foreign policy knowledge by trying to draw Biden into a dogfight and thus diminish him. According to the report linked above, Biden is planning on sticking to a prosecutorial, just-the-facts approach.
Either way, Palin's most basic task tonight is merely to project even an elementary level of competence, something that's eluded her so far, and it remains to be seen if going toe to toe with Biden on foreign policy is a good way to do that.
O could the little baby jebus possibly love me this much?
October 2, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
As an early christmas present would it be too much to ask for the words "Keating Five" from dear Uncle Joe tonight? After all without McCain-it would be the "Keating Four."
October 2, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Think she'd even know what "Keating Five" refers to??
October 2, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
She was in second grade when they put out their Mersey beat hit "Mad all Over."
October 2, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Comment of the day!
October 2, 2008 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only if you are old enough at least to remember when Dennis Miller was funny. (Young enough to be
McCain' son and Willow's great uncle.)
October 2, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah I hear The Keating Five are coming out with a greatest hits album this November featuring the hit "Don't It Make My Red States Blue." Can't wait! Just in time for President Obamas inauguration speech...
October 2, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I knew it was a plot when they were picked to open at the debate tonight! They only make more money if Obama is inaugurated. Damn that English invasion to hell.
October 2, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Every time Palin goes on one of her snarky rants about Biden/Barack's record tonight Joe should simply reply - "Keating 5" The best thing that could happen would be for the 50 million people that watch tonight to google "keating 5" tommorrow!
October 2, 2008 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many will be McCain supporters who cannot Google due to their war injuries. Many more will be disappointed that the Keating Five do not have a MySpace page and it will backfire on Biden.
October 2, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ricky-ok you win!!!!!!I am overestimating the viewing public...Hey whats the difference between a pit bull and Joe Biden - opposable thumbs, logical thinking, intelligence and experience
October 2, 2008 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn, Tena - beat me to it. :-)
Please oh great Flying Spaghetti Monster, let it be true!
October 2, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jiminy cricket! It's consistent, I guess, with the Rove doctrine (does she know that?) of attacking your opponent's strengths.
Seems like a stupid idea to me. You can't cram for this kind of attack, even though some Republican analyst (Bay Buchanan, I believe) said last night that facts and figures weren't really all that important.
God help us.
October 2, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Palin believes that herself:
This is a woman who has gotten by on nothing but her looks and what some people seem to take for "charm".
October 2, 2008 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually I think this is a pretty good idea. If you've ever tried to argue with some loud-mouthed, know-nothing Republican coming at you with ridiculous comments like ... oh, I don't know, pick one: "Obama wants to give civil rights to terrorists" ... you know how difficult and infuriating it can be. You just KNOW there's a perfect witty comeback, but you can't always find it on the spur of the moment.
This is something Palin ought to be good at. Maybe her handlers have thought up some new, breathtakingly crude and dishonest lines of attack, just for this occasion. The goal would be to leave Biden open-mouthed at such craven tactics, groping for words, unsure even whether to dignify this kind of idiocy with a response. Kind of like John Kerry was blindsided by the Swift Boat attacks and couldn't quite figure out how to handle it.
I hope Biden's got some grand strategy for dealing with this kind of trickery. Like maybe he's been practicing a look of gentle, dignified forbearance or something.
October 2, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let me guess---Palin to attack Biden on his tripartite solution for Iraq? Can she even pronounce tripartite? Maybe she'll say "three-state" just to make it easier.
October 2, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is actually a very good line of attack for Palin. Get Biden defending again his 3-state solution to Iraq. It was nonsense then and is nonsense now. You noticed he hasn't been promoting it recently. But If Obama is trying to rely on Biden to shore up his foreign policy credentials, this is a good way to undermine those credentials.
Plus in the run-up to the Iraq War, Biden kept saying to the adminstration that he was "with them." that he wanted to be "their partners." He was never ever opposed to the action. He just wanted it done the right way.
This will draw a wedge between Biden and Obama.
Don't know if Palin has the chops at all to exploit this stuff -- I would guess not -- but the right person could have a field day with this stuff.
October 2, 2008 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yup, yup, there's the tripartite Iraq issuse. Also, he voted against GHW Bush's war with Iraq and voted for GW Bush's war with Iraq. Those are the issues I've heard she plans to bring up.
October 2, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the plan is obvious: she's going to try and rattle Biden into a moment of anger. They're planning to "win" the debate by drawing Biden into a gaffe, since they obviously can't win it on Palin's own foreign policy cred.
Of course, this plan hinges on Palin's ability to speak English. Aye, there's the rub...
October 2, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude - I think Biden could turn red and yell You have to be fucking kidding me! And most America would applaud.
October 2, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word.
October 2, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Be advised many Republicans already think he turned red before he entered the Senate (back when Palin was nine years old and in the second grade)
October 2, 2008 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Politico and The Page reporting that McCain is pulling out of Michigan!!!!
http://thepage.time.com/
October 2, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Probably moving it to Pennsylvania. Which is pretty much their only hope at this point, concentrating resources in either MI or PA and hammering it hard.
October 2, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pennsylvania is deader than Julius Caesar to McCain.
Virginia - or maybe WI, or maybe both - would be a better bet.
October 2, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't trust them. I mean the McCain camp. Not that it matters, but there decisions have no consistency, no logic or no truth.
By the way, I just had the vision of Mittens with a sadistic smirk.
October 2, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain-Palin have already canceled a MI rally later in the month and look to put their energies on WI (yeah right) OH and FL according to the sources.
October 2, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Geha on the previous thread
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/1008/McCain_pulling_out_of_Michigan.html#comments
October 2, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Huge in that Michigan was the target of the McCain camp to flip. Now it seems he's going completely on the defensive. The Politico article states that he's moving the staff from Michigan to Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida.
Obama has been in Michigan a lot recently, and I commented that maybe his internal polls were showing it was a toss-up, however given this news, I guess he saw he was close to locking it up and wanted to seal the deal there.
If McCain moves out, it allows Obama to move out as well (though still keep a presence), meaning he can move his staff and ads elsewhere as well.
October 2, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
It definitely allows the unions to concentrate on Ohio.
October 2, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Really?
LMAO!
Retreat! Cut and run everybody!
October 2, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
No victory with honor in Michigan.
October 2, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
And even better, this is discouraging for McCain supporters. I remember how I felt in 2004 when I learned Kerry was pulling out of certain states. Completely bummed.
October 2, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain to Michigan: "Time to cut 'n' run!"
October 2, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Alright. I'm completely confused. I thought it was decided during the primaries that Michigan was not going to vote for Obama because they were disenfranchised?
October 2, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, that was decided at the PUMA tea party -- only they couldn't officially vote on it because they didn't have a quorum. Or trifle.
October 2, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Should be interesting. Bring the popcorn.
Politico is saying that McCain is pulling out of Michigan to focus on Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida.
I suspect that the polls showing that Obama is ahead in Florida are real thus McCain resources are going there.
October 2, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's gotta be more to this than meets the eye; classic Rovian "hitting your opponent where they're strongest."
But if it's true that Biden intends to ignore Palin and focus on McCain I'm not sure if going after Biden on a threshold he's already passed is the best use of 90 minutes time.
October 2, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
No. There. Does. Not.
When have they been all sneaky and foxy and shifty so far? They don't have mental wherewithal to pull of anything - what happened when he pretend-suspended his campaign?
October 2, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think they have anything else to work with at this point. They're not stupid enough to think she could actually win a debate with him on her own merits. This country's a real mess....cutsey, country charm just ain't going to cut it.
October 2, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Like negativity has helped these folks...
October 2, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Say whaaaaat? This is going to be fun!
October 2, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd fire right back and say that she said last year she hasnt payed much attention to Iraq, so she doesnt have the legs to stand on the attack.
October 2, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I bow to your avatar.
October 2, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or, more likely, she's going to tie foreign policy into energy policy. It's the only angle she has and it's an area where Joe Biden isn't particularly well-versed.
October 2, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
My inner avatar says this is part of my strategy of going after an opponents strength. I learned it by going to as many colleges as sweet Sister Sarah and I didn't even have to get my degree.
October 2, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Penchant". I love that.
I bet they are thinking that Biden won't go on the attack himself b/c it'll only make him look "mean and sexist". Is the attack tactic even working for them anyway?
October 2, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
NOPE!
October 2, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
My inner avatar says this is part of my strategy of going after an opponents strength. I learned it by going to as many colleges as sweet Sister Sarah and I didn't even have to get my degree.
October 2, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is me repeating myself. Did I tell you we are avoiding domestic policy because Alaska is too far from the rest of the United States for her to know anything about it?
October 2, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're right - there's no way they could prep her with enough information on domestic issues -
Foreign affairs can be more narrowly dealt with. You just hit regions, basically. She won't know any history behind anything - but she can vomit answers - when she remembers, like she did while talking to Katie about the economy and in the middle of ramble suddenly stopped dead, said "Oh! And jobs! It's all about jobs!" Cause she just that second remembered what they'd told her.
October 2, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know. Jos falls under the umbrella of job creation in the great history of our country, Tena. Ask all your hip handymen.
October 2, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am sure that Biden has prepared for that. I am sure he as prepared for Palin throwing his gaffes in face. I am sure that he will answer and pivot and attack McCain every time.
That's how I would handle it.
October 2, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Palin knows something we don't know, and that's why she's going on the attack. No, that's probably not it.
October 2, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think this is a head fake in an attempt to throw Biden off. McShame himself would be cautious to attack Biden on this front. Rove tactics aren't working so well this election and I doubt he has the ear of the campaign staff right now.
October 2, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hate it when my fat inner avatar displays low self esteem. I have the correct math. Everyone knows we are Bush's brain. Our legacy is secure.
October 2, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a certain logic here actually.
Going on the offensive means memorizing a certain number of attack points and delivering them.
Holding her own in response requires being prepared over a much wider potential range of issues.
October 2, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a complete JOKE! Can someone tell Caribou Barbie to go back to her trailer in Alaska to keep an eye on Putin's head....
These guys arent smart enough to have a coherent strategy.... ALL BULLSHIT happhazard tactics...
Biden just needs to answer the questions with substance and provide a clear contrast to this idiot... Ignore her and BUST McCain in the MOUTH on the ECONOMY!!!!!!!!!!!
Game over. Lights Out. Fat lady sings. etc.etc.etc..
October 2, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course. It's the same thing Dan Quayle did. Attack, attack, attack. Biden should just tie everything back to McCain, hammer McCain, and completely - I mean COMPLETELY - ignore Palin.
October 2, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is bit of quick fun for you.
Test your knowledge of Sarah Palin.
Ten multiple choice questions.
It is very funny,
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-palin-quiz.htm
October 2, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not frightened.
I'm scared shitless!
October 2, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you get zero, it says "Your score is 0%. Your lack of knowledge is so staggering, it's a wonder Jo