Excelled?!?

See, I knew it. It was all a nefarious plot by McCain. I can see it now..."You know what? You can play dumb! I mean, sure...you'll get some serious crap for it. But you'll be on SNL! That's good, right? And then you can come out and really wow 'em because they'll all be expecting a slaughter! That's a great idea!". And it worked.

I have literally seen one CNN correspondent (a woman, no less) who gave Palin an A+. "The plus is for wildly exceeding expectations.". Um. So? The grade shouldn't be on how bad she was expected to do, but on how she actually did!!

I'm not arguing that she did well. I will, very grudgingly, allow that she was able to pretty much hold her own. However - someone please tell me they saw how many times Palin did NOT answer the question presented to her, but instead moved on (or back, depending) to another question? If she didn't like it or didn't know it - by golly, she wasn't gonna go there. If it wasn't on her script, then it must not be an issue.

And the winking. Good grief, what was with the winking?!? I was, as a woman, very offended by that. I'm sorry, but I have a brain in my head. A fairly decent one, I've been told. I do not need to follow my points in a conversation by *winking*. Talk about stereotypical! "I'm not sure about how to answer this because we didn't cover this during 'Camp Cramming on Cliff Notes Hill'*...can I get back to you? *wink*".

How does any of this equate with an A+ performance? Never having actually seen Palin or Biden speak at length (I tend to be more of a newpaper gal), I went into this very curious. Biden ruled. He kept to the time. He answered the questions, and he answered them well. He did not talk down to Palin, nor did he make any major errors. He spoke well. He did not circle back when asked a question he didn't know how to answer ("environment" anyone?). THAT, my friends, was an A performance.

Palin kept to the time. She answered about half the questions in any way that actually gave an answer to the question. She got snarky about raising kids (though Biden held his own there). She made several errors (can someone tell me who the general is again please?!?). She circled back frequently (environment again?). It was as if she was given a list that she needed to make sure she checked off all her items: Environment? Check. Education? Check. Iraq? Check. What was that question again? Oh, don't know it....Environment? Check.

I'm disgusted by how low our expectations are of a Vice Presidential nominee (who happens to be a woman) to be able to answer questions about topics that she should know. She spoke fairly well, but that does NOT make a VP. Unless, of course, you live in America. Where dreams are high and reality is low.

*Thanks to georgia10 on DailyKos for that terrific label regarding Palin's disappearance to McCain's hideaway.