Palin Nailed Alaska Debates With 'Stiletto and a Smile'

VP nominee won Alaska debates with ready barbs, despite lack of policy know-how
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2008 11:33 AM CDT
Palin Nailed Alaska Debates With 'Stiletto and a Smile'
Mike Hart, a technician with Washington University, waits to pull a cable up from the stage as preparations continue for the upcoming vice presidential debate, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008, at the university in St. Louis. Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. and Republican vice presidential...   (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

What Sarah Palin may have lacked in policy knowledge during campaign debates in Alaska, she made up for in self-assurance and an astute sense of strategy, reports the LA Times, delivering verbal thrusts with a disarming smile. Joe Biden may find her a formidable opponent tomorrow night; in gubernatorial debates she effectively unnerved opponents with "a Reaganesque ability to offer up pithy answers and charm on camera."

"When you try to prove she doesn't know anything, you lose, because audiences are enraptured by her," a former opponent says. "And her biting comments give you a sense of how competitive she is. Anybody who doesn't take her seriously does so at their peril."
Palin’s best trick has been positioning herself above the fray in three-way fights, interjecting remarks with a wicked condescension, reports Politico. Tomorrow the only other person on the stage will be Biden, who's been known wield wit himself, but also to ramble.
(More Sarah Palin stories.)

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