How Democrats set Sarah Palin up to 'win' Thursday's VP debate

According to a news release from CBS News, Harry Smith will have an exclusive interview this morning with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, on "The Early Show."

It's not really exclusive, of course. CNN's Drew Griffin interviewed the proud father of the Republican Party's first female vice presidential candidate way back on Sept. 8 (see video by clicking on the "Read More" line below), when her father said, "She's still my little girl."

But, hey, this is TV and the CBS interview is exclusive for this morning.

It'll be the last peek into the family of Palin before her much-anticipated debate Thursday in St. Louis against longtime Sen. Joe Biden. But have Palin's Democratic opponents overplayed their hand in portraying the 44-year-old mother of five so derisively in recent days?

Was John McCain manager Steve Schmidt's puzzingly strong attack on the New York Times last week really a trap, an intentional bid to call even more attention to negative coverage of Palin to lower expectations? 

Harry Smith flew all the way up to Alaska last week and drove out to Wasilla with his crew to learn that Chuck Heath, who looks like the high school track coach he was when his daughter ran to a cross-country championship for him, thinks:

"She is ready to do anything she wants to. She perseveres. She works so hard. She learns so fast."

Knowing full well what he's going to get back from the worried....

. . .parent of anyone in American public life these days, but desperately hoping to generate at least some news for all those trans-continental expense dollars, the prominent member of the media himself puts words into the father's mouth.

Harry: "There’s a sense that she hasn’t been treated fairly by the media.”

Chuck Heath: “That’s what I feel. Someone said, ‘Well they have to get to know Sarah Palin.’ But Sarah Palin -- there is a good side of Sarah Palin and they’re digging and digging for the bad side and there is no real bad side. They’re fabricating a lot of things that I don’t want to go into.”

That much news is certainly worth getting up early for. But here's a really silly idea for this gotcha society:

If a candidate's family is not being arrested or not out on the campaign trail inviting news coverage as McCain's 96-year-old mother, Roberta, does, why don't we just leave them alone?

The way the U.S. media has so conscientiously managed to deny itself virtually any inquisitions of Barack Obama's poor half-brother in Africa and his half-sister in Hawaii and Joe Biden's mother and Michelle's family.

It's not new that American political campaigns, beneath a thinning veneer of public gentility, can be intrusive, brutal, even disgusting affairs, especially online.

McCain knows this too well from personal experience in 2000 when his adopted daughter from Bangladesh was portrayed in South Carolina as the illegitimate child of a biracial affair.

All big-time candidates develop very thick skin; some staffs even collect the worst insults in scrapbooks as badges of honor and humor. It's the candidates' defenseless families who really suffer.

And by keeping the governor herself largely away from the media, the McCain campaign is, in effect, playing a prevent defense, ceding the public relations playing field to others to describe, define and caricature Palin, strangely unanswered by her for a week now.

One recent Alaska poll showed Palin's approval rating there had tumbled to 68%, which is still about 20 points higher than either presidential candidate and seven times greater than Congress' approval.

The upcoming downside for the Obama-Biden campaign is that its supporters became so flustered over Palin's surprisingly explosive popularity coming out of the GOP convention. They have so successfully mocked, derided and lowered expectations for Palin in Thursday night's VP debate that if she doesn't drool or speak in tongues, many millions still open to persuasion will be impressed.

Al Gore's campaign made the exact same mistake going into the 2000 debates. So all Texas Gov. George W. Bush had to do was not lose.

In that sense, Democrats may have played right into a PR cul-de-sac. Biden, for instance, described Palin as merely better-looking than him. A far better communications strategy would have been to insincerely portray Palin with superlatives as a superwoman, making it harder, not easier, for her to impress. Too late now. 

It'll be difficult for Palin's parents because they so want to keep up and cheer their daughter on. But if they are wise, for their own mental health, they'll pretty much avoid the news for the next six weeks or so. What the threatened Alaskan Republican establishment tried to do to stop Palin, the political insurgent, back in 2005-06 is nothing.

And Chuck and Sally should never ever go online where they might stumble upon the sites portraying their "little girl" as, among other things, a naked porn star in action. Welcome to American politics 2008, Web-style.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Top photo: Sarah Palin's parents. Credit: Al Grillo / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Joseph Kaczmarek / Associated Press

Comments

[mary Meyers]

I agree that families should be off limits, but the republican party especially with Rove's influence has been relentless in their personal attacks for the past 8 years. Their hypocrosy is galling; democratic candidates wives are unAmerican when they don't want disclose tax records but it's no biggie if you are Rep. For years we've heard that only they have family values and Mother's should stay home with their children; Unless you are a big oil creationist who thinks rape victims should not only be forced to carry their rapists baby but should pay for the rape kits! While Bristol to me is an innocent bystander Sarah is free game when her own views on birth control and abstinence only teaching delivered her daughter to where she is today; a H.S. dropout about to marry a boy who doesn't want children. Sarah brought her family into the media circus that every candidate's family is exposed to. However, she brought her pregnant teenage daughter into knowing full well what would happen. Sarah's ambition is evidently stronger than her family values. Also, I love how Republicans continue to bring up the despicable use of the McCain's adopted daughter in 2000 but fail to mention it was perpetrated by his OWN PARTY, Rove and Bush!!
I think the sudden interest in portraying Sarah as being wronged by the media is a desperate attempt to camouflage her complete lack of knowledge and inability to utter a sentence without a teleprompter.
Sarah, take your life back; go home to your family and the state who chose you to govern them and come through on you promise of reform and transparency and maybe, afterwards, you will be ready to return to the national stsge. I wish you and your beautiful family only the best.

[Olddog]

There's gonna be a large number of people who want to see her win, no matter what happens. They will see it just so. Others want Biden to win and will see that, no matter what. I personally don't envision her holding her own with the far more experienced Biden. Especially after seeing the interview with Katie Couric. That was a train wreck if I ever saw one. I have been a Republican voter all of my adult life, but I can't vote for McCain because of the very real possibility of this woman ending up as POTUS. This would be an unthinkable mess that our country would not recover from.

[tlhwraith]

What a load of huey!

First of all, it isn't really the Democrats attacking Palin, oddly enough they are surprisingly mute on her the last couple of weeks (and rightly so). If anything, the conservatives and the media itself are the ones beating up on Palin, and if anything, lowering expectations for her.

This article makes the very erroneous assertion that people can somehow fall back in love with Sarah Palin. The problem is, whatever currency she gets from her narrative has been utterly decimated by her lack of knowledge in the nuts-and-bolts needed to be VP. Simply put, the lady doesn't have the skill set for the gig.

Anyway, I guess this is a nice spin job for the GOP, but I doubt if anyone but die-hard Republicans will agree with it. From what I see, the shine is off the rose of Palin, and people will be listening on Thursday to see if she has the intellect, not just the media story, to be VP.

[Omidal]

That spin won't work. After the beating she took from her daughter's pregnancy I do not see her way out of presenting her parents. Maybe Palin's parents have issues of their own that the media will want to find out.

[Jorge Nishinsky]

America is on the edge of bankruptcy, we are involved n two wars, we have a 72 year old man who has mental issues running for the highest office in the land, and the talk of the town is a 44 year old woman who has no idea of how the world works. I am 64 years old and to be quite frank, nothing I have ever seen is more comical than what is happening in the USA. How can anyone take these clowns seriously!!!

[Marc Country]

But, of course, she WILL speak in tongues, just like she's done in every interview so far. She can't help it. She is simply not bright enough to avoid it. This is not something a "democratic supporter" has told me: this is what I know from watching Palin myself.

[John]

What's unfair or sexist about the truth. The lady is incapable of doing the job of VP or God forbid President.

It's unfair to the American people NOT to point this out.

Sexist and unfair would be to hold her to a lower standard,that's what the Republicans are trying to get the media and voters to do.

[Annie]

Andrew,
Nobody hounded Sarah Palin into what she said in interviews with either Charles Gibson or Katie Couric. Sarah Palin shot her own self in the foot there. And yes, did you forget, we did hear from a VERY ARTICULATE Maya Soetoro Eng at the Democratic Convention.

And by the way, Malia and Sasha Obama are in school in Chicago. Where are Bristol, Willow, and Piper Palin? Not in school, that's for sure.

[Joey]

You poor losers, desperately trying to demean a good woman who is way more qualified than your pathetic choice.

You know she will kick Biden, and you are running around like chickens trying to formulate excuses before the debate even started.

What does this remind me of? (Hint: Obama may potentially lose, AP Poll, racism...)

[laurie]

in a debate formate she will have to complete a full thought in a timely manner without the use to some publicist to come out an make corrections. even if she manages to do this for the first time, we will have to like what she's saying. unfortunately, based on what i've read on the mccain/palin proposed policies, that not likely to be the case for most, if not all, democrats.

i just hope she can show a little more respect for joe biden than her running mate modeled in his debate with barack obama. to not even once look at the person you're suppose to be debating for 90 minutes, even during hand shakes, shows a lot about his character.

good luck to both of sarah palin and joe biden.

[Brian]

The article asserts:
"In that sense Democrats may have played right into a PR cul-de-sac. Biden, for instance, described Palin as merely better-looking than him. A far better communications strategy would have been to insincerely portray Palin with superlatives as a superwoman, make it harder, not easy, for her to impress. Too late now. "

I think this is a pretty inaccurate portrayal of the Obama-Biden approach and comments towards the VP debate. Its strange that this would be portrayed like this.

Biden fhas said "Look, she's a smart, tough politician, and so I think she's going to be very formidable" and has repeatedly said in interviews that he is used to debating tough, smart women, obviously attempting to place Palin in that category.

[Jane]

I also think she was so terrible in the 3 whole interviews as a strategy, so we would be expecting a wonderfully funny debate. When I though of this, it bummed me out. I want funny.

After the debate she'll be allowing interviews like mad and be a normal empty worded politician.

[Brittany]

I find this article slightly biased in that the author on makes note only of the negative campaigning done by Democrats. In reality, both sides are equally guilty of such despicable tactics. But I agree with Malcolm's overall point that the personally attacking nature of today's political campaigns isn't something to be proud.

I don't feel the comparison between CBS and CNN interviewing Palin's parents and the lack of investigation into Obama's half siblings is fair. Palin's parents, whether sought out or not, agreed to do those interviews. Furthermore, her parents are much more relevant to her background and character than his half siblings (especially one who lives on another continent) are to his. And in reference to the misinformation about McCain's daughter, that happened during the 2000 Presidential primaries. McCain's then campaign manager seems to believe that fellow Republican George W. Bush's people were responsible for that misinformation. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/03/21/the_anatomy_of_a_smear_campaign/

[amccoy]

I agree that the complete lack of ability to understand and respond intelligently to questions for which she doesn't have scripted answer was PAINFULLY evident in her interviews, but likely will not be seen in the debate. I think the real question will be whether the debate gets off of scripted lines or not. Most likely it will give the impression of doing so, but never really get off script.
Palin used to be professional TV new caster (Weather) and can speak to the cameras well. Her speech at the Republican convention shows she is able to speak to the american people and clearly she has more ability to deliver lines than Joe Biden ever could. She is much more adept at seeming to answer a question by changing the subject to something she wants to speak about. I have been saying for some time that the typical debate format plays heavily to her strength. I agree that expectations have been lowered to the point that only a complete failure on her part would be seen as anything other than a success, but I expect in that format she will do quite well. Don't blame all the lowered expectations on the Democrats though. Palin lowered expectations by being SO incompetent when asked questions she wasn't prepared ahead of time for.
Get rid of the moderator and let them start quizzing one another on policy and how one would respond if Latvia attacked Lituania and Biden would likely shine. Feed them typical debate questions and I think she will look good.

[CountryFirst]

The constant drumbeat of "Palin's not qualified to be VP!!" cracks me up. She's a hundred times more qualified to be VP than 0bama is qualified to be president.

When you go after the thinness of her resume, you have to admit 0bama's is, by comparison, practically non-existent.

Ditto character, philosophy, associates and political platform.

In any comparison to Sarah Palin, 0bama comes up woefully short. But libs just don't seem to be able to help themselves.

I can't wait for the debate. Sarah will beat Joe Biden like a rented mule. Best to go long on popcorn.

[T N McCoy]

Palin can win the debate just by showing up. Her aura and presence on stage will put Joe Biden on the run. Expect a number of gaffes.

[tony]

The Democrats have nothing to do with lowering expectation of Palin for the upcoming debate. If anything, Palin and McCain campaign are the ones who are lowering expectation for her, by giving the public absolutely no reasons to believe she understands the issues or is competent to discuss them. If her performance in the few interviews she had done was an act, and she was playing dumb to hide her knowledge on the issues, she should be in Hollywood, not wasting her time and talent in politics.

[Heather]

"Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington" -- at a time when the jackals of the Democratic party are feasting on the American taxpayer's bailout of their pretty pets (ACORN, LA RAZA, FannieMae, FreddieMac), I can't think of a better analogy. Or to use another movie analogy, Palin is Reese Witherspoon with a chihuahua in her purse who took out her pink highlighter and eliminated a bunch of wasteful porkbarrel in Alaska, and thus made fools of the big boys. I can hardly wait to see her make mincemeat of old ImBiben.

[Juan]

The Left, including its wholly owned subsidiary, the US Media, has long employed Marxist tactics in singling out a particular individual as a target of hatred (rather than competing in the arena of ideas). Obama, as a disciple of Saul Alinsky and well-versed in the politics of personal destruction, has chosen Gov. Palin as his side's current target. This is nothing new. If you doubt this, consider the hatred generated by his followers in message boards and forums. Visit one of the Left's forums and see how long you can stand the vitriol. There's no discussion of policy - only endless screeds of hatred enough to immediately repel any normal person.

[J. Woode]

I don't think any amount of spin or wishful thinking is going to stop the crash and burn come Thursday night. You can dress up a pig but it's still a pig and lipstick isn't going to help. It will be standing room only in my family room and we expect to be entertained. I'll be stocking the bar today.

[usaroadtripper]

If Palin is the idiot that liberals like to say she is, then why would the Dems have to do anything at all to prevail in this debate?

Because they are scared to death of Palin's appeal.

[jasperjava]

The Democrats didn't do anything to lower expectations of Palin's performance in the debates. She ddi that all on her own, with her bizarre, incoherent interviews.

She might as well be speaking in tongues. How will anyone tell the difference between that and the rambling, disjointed answers she gives?

[ick]

she's going to embarrass herself this Thursday, no matter what approach Biden takes, no matter how much "preparation" her people try to give her. Oh well. It will be good for SNL.

[reallytiredofit]

I have found drooling and speaking in tongues to be a particularly effective debate technique.

[Ferplexion]

Sorry, I don't buy this line of reasoning at all. Most Americans did not watch the Couric interview. Many people who don't read the news everyday still don't know that much about Sarah Palin, so they have yet to pass judgment on her. This is especially true of lower-middle class, white working women (Hillary demographic), who projected their own hopes & beliefs on Sarah Palin, but in polls tend to move away from Palin once they know more about her. A lot of these people will see her speak for this first time since the RNC, and it won't be pretty.