16 Comments

1. al-alo says:

   October 3, 2008 at 8:11 am

   “Vice Presidents are, for the most part, history’s footnotes and this year will be no different.”

   for the most part, that is true. but what about the these former VP’s?

   Adams, John

   Arthur, Chester Alan

   Bush, George Herbert Walker

   Coolidge, (John) Calvin

   Fillmore, Millard

   Ford, Gerald R(udolph)

   Jefferson, Thomas

   Johnson, Andrew

   Johnson, Lyndon Baines

   Nixon, Richard Milhous

   Roosevelt, Theodore

   Truman, Harry S.

   Tyler, John

   Van Buren, Martin
2. bizarrogirl says:

   October 3, 2008 at 9:17 am

   “To my mind, the folksy way of speaking is an affect.”

   I could not agree more. It does become grating, largely because it’s so insincere. Golly gee, I’m just an average Jane who’s gonna take up for ya here, don’t ya know. (Is it just me, or does she sound an awful lot like Marge Gunderson from Fargo?)
3. Dave A. says:

   October 3, 2008 at 9:34 am

   I loved the way Biden repeated his best lines (”John McCain voted against… Let me say that again, JOHN MCCAIN VOTED AGAINST…”). He must have rehearsed with Jim Rome.
4. buffalomom says:

   October 3, 2008 at 9:59 am

   So I caved. I watched it with my daughter, the 3 year old who kept asking, “Mommy, why is that lady talking to me?” Good question.

   Palin was like a beebee gun loaded with talking points. And if I closed my eyes, I thought I heard GWB – FOLKS and nucular. Was that real? Nucular?

   I’m so tired of the “wonkish” comments. I don’t think it’s elistist to want someone smart running this country. I do NOT want a PTA mom who was able to memorize a bunch of bullet points sitting next to my president for the next four years giving advice or trying to expand the powers of the VP. Spare me.

   Here’s a question to the group: Why have a debate if you refuse to answer the questions? I mean, why didn’t Ifil just turn to Palin and say, “Ok. Your turn, Governor. What talking point do you want to spew now? Do you want to say ‘Maverick’ again?”

   I’m offended. In college, you had to answer the questions on the test. Maybe I knew about Plato and the shadows in the cave. But the question was on Kant. Let’s see, if I recall, I had to talk about Kant. I am so so so tired of Sarah Palin being held to such an insultingly low standard. It’s insulting to all intelligent women.
5. JB says:

   October 3, 2008 at 10:14 am

   buffalomom – I could have sworn I was hearing nucular myself. She started out with a clear nuclear, but sometime 15-20 minutes later I started hearing the lazy nucular come out.
6. Mike In WNY says:

   October 3, 2008 at 10:30 am

   It’s not just McCain in trouble, we are all in trouble and the American People are unwilling to vote for truth and real solutions. Obama and McCain are both like the water in a toilet bowl, they both spin counter-clockwise before going down the drain.
7. hank says:

   October 3, 2008 at 10:43 am

   Did anyone suppose for a minute that a woman who grew up in Idaho and lives in Alaska just might talk that way because that’s truly who she is?

   As I grew up in Buffalo where people don’t talk like Palin, it can be grating at times to me too. Problem is, most of you have never left Buffalo, never lived anywhere else, don’t know how people speak in different parts of the country. Buffalo is a lot like New Orleans, in that “if you’re not from here, Fuck You”. You’re very intolerant of outsiders. Probably also another reason that Buffalo looks like the crumbling ghetto that it is these days.

   Since none of you would ever deign to watch Fox News, you didn’t see the focus group of undecideds they had in a room with their good/bad dials. Palin’s adress on “personal responsibility” went off the charts.

   of the 30 undecideds in the room, 27 said she WON the debate. I didn’t even think that myself. She held her own, and nobody that posts here thought she would even do that.

   The women in the focus group were animated in their praise. Why I thought this surprising was that all I’ve heard here is that she wouldn’t appeal to women voters, including disaffected Hillary fans.

   And Alan–If you couldn’t see by the end of the debate Biden was PISSED OFF, you’re blinders are in proper adjustment. She had his blood pressure up.

   Consdiering Biden has been debating in the Senate since his opponent was a 7 year old child, he SHOULD have done a LOT better.

   30 years of foreign policy work, when your cabeza has been jammed in your culo the entire time, means little. Biden still has ZERO executive experience. Had he had a couple of terms as Governor of Delaware under his belt, Barry would’t have the nomination—BIDEN WOULD.

   Another Barry O, has wanted to be President since he was a boy. That kind of ego is something to be afraid of.
8. Peter C says:

   October 3, 2008 at 11:49 am

   Hank, you’re an idiot if you think that Fox Noise had “undecided” voters as its focus group.

   I can’t believe I’m going to say this but the only thing scarier than the possibility of a Dick Chaney presidency would be a Sarah Palin presidency. She is an absolute joke. She cannot name two Supreme Court cases? She is an uneducated, lying, hateful bitch who is so ignorant that it boggles the mind. McCain is SEVENTY FREAKIN’ TWO YEARS OLD. He has had cancer MORE THAN ONCE! Anyone who would allow her to be a heartbeat or Vietnam flashback away from the presidency obviously does not care about anything other than the right-wing social conservative hateful agenda. Is allowing two people who happen to be of the same sex prosper in a committed and monogamous relationship worse than killing tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi’s and American soldiers because Bush-the-Butcher-of-Baghdad swindled congress, and the American people into believing they were somehow a threat?

   And yes Hank, I’ve left Buffalo (unfortunately- hopefully only a few more months until I can return).

   You know who else has ZERO executive experience that angry little man who thinks being a POW is a qualification for the presidency of the United States. I’m amazed at the balls the GOP has talking about change. For 8 horrible years we have been subjected to the absolute worst presidency in the history of our country. For the American people to even consider another Republican is truly a tragedy.
9. dave-in-rocha says:

   October 3, 2008 at 2:31 pm

   “Did anyone suppose for a minute that a woman who grew up in Idaho and lives in Alaska just might talk that way because that’s truly who she is?”

   Oh bullshit. Bill Clinton was from Arkansas yet he was able to talk as if he passed 11th-grade English. I don’t care “who she truly is”, if she’s speaking in a formal setting she shouldn’t act like she’s chatting it up with her pals back home.

   “Biden still has ZERO executive experience.”
   Well, how much does Juan McC have?
10. Steven says:

    October 3, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    No offence but your NY is showing Al.

    Most people in the midwest and south talk with that:

    “folksy way of speaking”

    Only big city people find that annoying.

    Anyone that has sat and watched the look on a southerners face when someone like Guiliana speaks about:

    “Pawking his Kaaar in Da Garage”

    would realize that.

    She wasn’t be folksy for us ( NY’ers), our vote in the great scheme of things doesnt count, or more to the point has already been counted thanks to our one party state voting record.

    Just my 2 cents.
11. Double Drats says:

    October 3, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    I couldn’t tell if it was Tina Fey or Sarah Palin.

    “Folksy” is that synonymous for “dontcha know ya sound just like ya just stepped down off-a D-wide front step.” AND being a Gramma cuz yer 16 year old is prego just completes the picture. *wink wink*
12. dave-in-rocha says:

    October 3, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    @Steven: “Most people in the midwest and south talk with that:
    ‘folksy way of speaking’
    Only big city people find that annoying.”

    I don’t care where in the world you’re from or what kind of down-home phrases you use in private, when you’re in a formal setting, you don’t use phrases like “don-cha know”. Even if your accent makes it sounds like “don’t ya know”, or “doon-tcha know”, or whatever. The vernacular I use when I give scientific talks or am presenting to sponsors isn’t the same I use when talking to friends. I don’t say “let’s have a look-see at this graph” or “hey now, what does this data tell us?”. I’ve heard people with the thickest accents give good talks because they were speaking like they’re a professional. Her “folksy” way of speaking is not professional, it’s embarrassing.
13. rastamick61 says:

    October 3, 2008 at 6:04 pm

    Maybe I oughtta move to the place that spawned jesse helms and water moccasins to improve my cosmopolitan air. What kind of bullshit is this Hank ? Because you moved to the fucking mosquito belt for work you’re now qualified to call everyone in buffalo a rube ? Why aren’t you commenting on the CharlotteNC.net or Bugbite.com in your own community ? Palin was scooping way down into the aww shucks barrel with that dyselocution of hers and it sounded phoney as hell.
14. MaryAnne says:

    October 3, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    Like my mother told me: if you ignore Hank, he’ll go away. It seems each time I visit this site this Hank person tosses in some comment that starts a thread that gets people totally off topic. Hank is not interested in discourse, only in having people see the world exactly the way he sees it.

    I watched the debate and found her speech patterns annoying. I found the winking entirely inappropriate and the “hold it, I’m just a soccer Mom” gestures to be forms of body language that didn’t play for me. Too, I don’t really go for collaquialisms in a debate setting. It’s a style thing that we shouldn’t get too het up about. What we should get het up about is important things such as the fact that neither Senator John McCain nor Governor Sarah Palin knows who runs the show in Iran. As Senator Biden mentioned in an aside (which should not have been an aside) was that Iran is a theocracy and Ahmadinejad does not run the show. This is not a minute matter. The difference between Sunnis and Shiites is not a minor matter. These are important matters that should be understood and respected. We are a highly individuistic culture and do not understand those that are not.

    By the by: not a Hilary or Obama supporter. Lived and worked in the Midwest (Minnesota and Iowa) and North Carolina, too. Some people spoke the way Governor Palin does, most did not. Regional accents are becoming less and less distinct because people are moving around so much.
15. rastamick61 says:

    October 3, 2008 at 11:58 pm

    Maryanne — you’re right about the off topic guy, right about the Ayatollahs running Iran too, right about Shia vs Sunni for 1400 yrs. too and I totally agree that Pakin’s gee whiz crap is best saved for PTA or Wasilla Moose Lodge picnics. It has no place in a serious debate unless the user’s motive is to dumb the whole enterprise down to a level that accepts as dim a bulb as she is showing herself to be. Shame on me for allowing myself to be hanked off topic !
16. stephen says:

    October 4, 2008 at 8:18 pm

    why howdy there, eh? (cute folksy Pan-Can-Am speak)

    see you at the next Prez Debate? Where Obama will come out with a grey Biden wig and McCain a pantsuit and pumps?

    Here’s hoping.