Sarah Palin: What Can the Debate REALLY Prove?

Right now we’re told Sarah Palin is in the midst of cramming for the biggest test she’s ever had to take. I have no doubt she’s learning responses fast and furious. And I have no doubt she’ll be able to parrot much of them back with style.

Of course, all candidates practice for their debates. I’m sure Joe Biden, known for his occasional gaffes, is going through some serious preparation. But here’s what bothers me about Sarah: Most candidates, and especially Biden, bring a much higher level of understanding of the issues to their practice sessions. They’re mainly working on delivery and nuance. She’s still learning the facts. And from what she’s shown us (especially lately), and from the way she’s being protected from any substantive interviews right now, even the McCain team know they have a situation that needs handling.

Look…I don’t wish Sarah ill. But just coming up with the answers supplied her doesn’t show us anything other than she can learn quickly and regurgitate answers. But what exactly is she learning? How to reason? How to think? How to apply sound strategic thinking to critical social, economic, environmental, foreign policy, and security issues? No. She’s learning to give us canned answers that will try to make people feel much better about all the really scary stuff she’s been saying. And we’re learning that Republicans, including people on the McCain team, know she is not capable of doing well without LOTS of cramming.

I’m not sure about any of you, but most of the stuff I learned when I crammed for tests went on the paper the day of the test and then were gone a few days later. Cramming is not a substitute for lifetime learning and innate understanding of how domestic and international issues relate to each other and to the well-being and security of all of us. Cramming also can’t take away the fact that she has said and done many questionable, at times frighteningly out-of-touch, things and gives us no reason to think that will change after the crammed answers fall out of her mouth.

Now…I know some of you may be saying that she may not know a lot now, but she will show by this debate that she can pick things up quickly. Actually, she’ll only show she can be fed answers and then deliver them with style and gusto. A great talent, but not the skills necessary to one day lead our nation should, god forbid, something happen to John McCain. And, when a nation is in crisis, considering just how much even her Republican colleagues see lacking in her, how quickly will she have to learn then and who will be doing her thinking for her, despite her maverick nature?

So for me…despite the huge ratings her debate with Biden will get and the possibility she might indeed come off much better than anyone expects (especially when expectations are so low), in the end…what has she shown? Actors go on stage and delivers lines they memorize. Does that reason alone make them qualified to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency?

Palin is certainly a bright woman capable of her own thought process. The very fact that we’ll hear canned lines coming out of her mouth shows me McCain and his team don’t trust or respect her. And if that’s the case now, what will it be like if McCain were elected? Would she really have a voice in his administration or would she have served her purpose of getting him elected, and then be relegated to a very special mission watching the Russians from Alaska?

No matter how she does in the debate, we will not have had a chance to see the real Palin left to her own devices and abilities. And that’s not only an insult to her, it’s an insult to us all.

Or so I think.

JABG