It’s the Competence, Stupid!

OK, it’s still the economy too (stupid!), but it’s really a combination of many things, all viewed through the prism of competence. We’ve got a lot of problems in this country, and if we don’t have leadership who can perform well on the little things, what hope do we have that they will perform well on the big ones? And competence is clearly where Obama-Biden runs rings around McSame-Such As. (Or, based on these debate “word clouds,” perhaps McSame-Also!)

Remember the ads running on the morning before the Presidential Debate already declaring McCain the winner? It was a silly mistake, made worse when he got his ass kicked during the event according to most polls. Apparently McCain’s campaign does not learn from its mistakes. Today’s version of incompetence, shown above in another web ad from the Washington Post, includes a quote from some generic “famous person” declaring Palin the winner of the VP Debate.

I suppose it makes sense that someone as vague and vapid as Palin wouldn’t garner the praise of anyone specific. And I guess people who actually believe her shallow talking points might be impressed by praise coming from someone the campaign assures them is both “famous” and a “person!” But this is just another screw up from a campaign that has become known for them.

As for the claim that Palin won the debate, just about every poll I’ve seen begs to differ! Not only was Biden more knowledgeable on the issues, he was much more appealing as a person. I was watching on CNN, where they had a real-time favorability tracker measuring independent Ohio voters. While Palin alternately cycled above and below the neutral point depending on how smoothly she was reciting her talking points, Biden almost never dropped below zero and frequently flatlined at the top of the scale.

She may have been “the star” of “her evening,” but only like, say, Sasha Baron Cohen was the star of “Borat!” However, to go so far as to say that she “killed” sounds more like confirmation of my pre-debate post than a description of her competence in the debate!

[Also] Based on Palin’s stated reading habits in the Katie Couric interview, I’m actually surprised they didn’t just attribute the quote to all of them famous people!