Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Palin the Debater

I'm listening to the last Alaska governorship debate, featuring the Person Best Qualified to Replace John McCain (link). She's good. She's comfortable in her own skin; she's well-briefed; she doesn't run away from her strong anti-abortion and anti-stem-cell positions, but she's not particularly bellicose or confrontational about them either. Indeed, the most interesting thing about the debate for me was its overall high quality--three candidates, all capable of responding to a range of (seemingly) well-formed questions on state issues which any non-Alaskan is likely to know zilch about.

This says about bupkas on the question of how she would face issues affecting a president, but it certainly counsels that one would be unwise to underestimate her. Anyway, we'd better get used to her; David Frum argues that win or lose, she is going to be around for a while.

In the contest for the palm as best Palin commentary of the day, a surprise winner: David Brooks, for his shrewd appraisal of Palin and also of McCain (link).

Bonus: there's an Intrade contract up on the possibility of a Palin withdrawal; it trades at this moment at 13.9/12. Obama for president is trading at 61.7/61.1.

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