Palin the Post-Turtle

By BJ

Finally, I've found the perfect way to explain Sarah Palin's position on the national stage.

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President. The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle."

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle."

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. "You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dummy put her up there to begin with."

Amusing anecdotes aside, there is a danger that going into Thursday's debate with Joe Biden, as Andrew Malcolm put it, the Democrats,

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.

Granted that just aiming for something around the level of run-of-the-mill incompetence of the Dan Quayle/George W Bush variety isn't exactly what the Republicans had planned for their VP candidate, but at this point it will be beating expectations, which will be more than enough for some.

And the downside for the Democrats is that there really isn't any way for them to "win" this cycle. Joe Biden mopping the floor with Palin is more or less what everybody expects now. If he doesn't clearly win, he winds up looking bad. If he does win easily, he risks looking the bully and being smeared with charges of sexism and so forth. (I mean, sure, they'll attack him for that anyway. They're already pre-emptively attacking the debate moderator for being biased days before the debate even takes place! The attack ads on Biden's, and by extension Obama's, sexism are probably already in the pipeline.)

Style over substance is unfortunately the way these things get decided, and I don't envy Biden the task of beating Palin without being in the least bit condescending or belittling. In the end, I assume Palin will avoid a total meltdown on stage, and as such it will be enough to give the Republicans a slight boost.

It still won't change the fact that she's a post-turtle.

Comments

[adamson]

I like that anecdote :) I've never heard it before, but I really like it.

I'm going to use it now :)

[post turtle]

That sums Palin up lol, I read it here http://www.nettechguide.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2243868 didnt believe it though.
How do post turtles actually get up there though?