You Betcha, SNL Kills

With Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill, Tina Fey is too good to be believed. She hits every gag, you can’t miss this.

The Sarah Palin Debate Strategy

Via John Gruber’s Twitter feed. Find the original here.

She won by not falling flat on her face (wink, wink)

Heather Gehlert from AlterNet:

Many politicians have mastered the art of dodging questions. What struck me about this debate was that Sarah Palin has mastered the art of something else: making you forget the question.

This debate wasn’t lost or won based on anything verbal. It was won on nonverbal communication. And the winner was Sarah Palin.

I completely agree. While her lack of knowledge, experience, curiosity and depth is evident every time she opens her mouth, her charm, charisma, and strong personality get her through. However, she is ALL personality. ALL folksy charm. I spent the first half of the debate tense and frustrated – she was winning! Not by answering the questions (she didn’t), not by offering better solutions (she didn’t), not even by properly and truthfully defending John McCain’s record (she didn’t), but by coming across as the cute, enthusiastic soccer mom from down the street. She looked directly in the camera – at the American people – while Biden addressed Gwen Ifill and looked at his notes.

The second half was a different story. Even dodging the questions, changing the topics, and sticking to the tired one-liners could not get her out of the mess that is her limited, weird understanding of foreign policy. And her answer about the powers of the VP was astounding. Biden loosened up, got emotional, showed that he is a ”Main Street” kinda guy.

Joe Klein:

What she did show was some folksy charm and some energy—qualities that might get her selected for Dancing With the Stars, if not Jeopardy.

Ouch!

All she did was save herself

Conservative Ross Douthat of the Atlantic has a nice summary…

But those same initial polls also show respondents giving it to Biden, and I’m not all that surprised. He didn’t need to wipe the floor with her in order to win, and he wisely didn’t try; he just needed to sound more authoritative, nuanced, and experienced than her, to hammer away at John McCain, and to generally play defense for a ticket that’s on its way to victory at the moment. And I think he succeeded. The Democrats have a lot of built-in advantages in this election cycle, and judging by the public’s reaction to the first debate, the key to victory for Obama-Biden is to do no harm – don’t squander your advantages, don’t freak out when the Republicans score their points on the surge and offshore drilling, and just be sure to always nudge the conversation back to the economy, to middle-class tax cuts versus tax cuts for the rich, to health care, and to George W. Bush’s record. So while Sarah Palin did an awful lot for Sarah Palin tonight, there was only so much she could do for her running mate - given her own limits, but especially given the state of the country, and the gulf between the issues the McCain campaign wants to fight on and the issues voters care about. She’s saved herself from Quayle-dom, but Obama-Biden is one debate closer to victory.