Advice For Palin At The Debate

I'm not sure it's possible for either Palin or Biden to actually win tonight's debate. At best Palin can come away with her head held as high as when she walked in.

I've read a transcript of her recent interview with Hugh Hewitt and while I'm not overly impressed with her responses, I'm not totally underwhelmed either. After reading that and also transcripts of her Couric interview with McCain, I'd like to give a few general tips:

1) As much as possible, let go of the wells, gonnas, gottas, huhs, absolutelys, kindas, yeahs and I'll get back to yous.

2) Keep your answers short, to the point. Don't over-answer, which is your tendency. Don't be afraid to say you don't know.

3) Give specific examples or tell a story that show you have something salient to say.....'that reminds me of the time I was hunting moose in ANWR and ran smack into a grizzly bear.....' Have fun with it, your audience will be enraptured.

4) Whatever the question, bring it back to what you know from being mayor and a governor with executive experience and energy and budget expertise. Know your strengths and bring your answers back to your strong points. When foreign policy experience comes up, ask if Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan had any when they became president. Remind the audience of several of Biden's foreign policy mistakes and positions including opposing the surge. Remind Biden that he's said many times that foreign policy is Obama's greatest weakness. Remind Biden of his statement that paying higher taxes is patriotic. She should say, I'm a patriot too, Joe, but I feel you can show your patriotism without having to pay higher taxes like you and Senator Obama.

5) In every question, differentiate yourself from Bush, Obama, Biden and even at times from McCain. Show you're your own woman without being over-bearing. Again, give short, specific examples from your own experience. (Remember when you debated your gubernatorial opponent and said it takes balls to do the job you were doing?--Do that again tonight with Joe.)

6) Don't hesitate to ask the moderator or your opponent for clarification of a question or an answer....Joe, how in the world do you have the nerve to ask a crippled man to get up and walk?

7) Keep your sense of humor. It's one of your great strengths. Give us a zinger with our without lipstick. You did it once, you can do it again.

Let's take a segment of Palin's recent interview with Couric. I'll add my critique after each Q & A:

Couric: Experts say it'll take almost 20 years and it would …to achieve peak production … in ANWR. And it would still only cut foreign oil dependence by about two percent and only for a little while … so is it really worth …

Palin: Yeah, I don't know who the …

My critique: Yes it is. (That's enough.)

Couric: The risk?

Palin: …experts are who say that it would take 20 years. As the governor of an energy-producing state, we're supplying 16, 17 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy coming from my state. And as the former chairman of the Interstate Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the geologists, the petroleum engineers whom I speak with are saying it can be done a lot quicker than 20 years from now. And, remember ANWR is a 2,000-acre plot that's in the midst of 21 million acres. That's not where the supply of domestic energy sources is, though, necessarily. I mean, that's not the be-all, end-all. Offshore is where the supply of energy is. And we'll tap into that.

My critique: Yes. It's worth the risk. My state of Alaska counts for between 16 and 17% of our domestic energy supplies. The 2,000 acres at ANWR are less than .1% of a 21 million acre reserve. Every energy project in Alaska and every pipeline has caused an over-population of wildlife, rather than a decrease. I would like to invite you to come to Alaska, Katie, as my personal guest, to see this for yourself. I will personally show you the part of ANWR where drilling would take place. I plan to take President McCain there soon too.

My experts tell me it won't take even close to 20 years to bring new sources online. They also tell me off-shore supplies are a vast untapped resource that will drastically begin to cut our dependence on foreign oil within 3-5 years.

Couric: I want to talk about climate change, if I could. What's your position on global warming? Do you believe it's man-made or not?

Palin: Well, we're the only arctic state, of course, Alaska. So we feel the impacts more than any other state up there, with the changes in the climates. And certainly it is apparent. We have erosion issues and we have melting sea ice, of course. So what I've done up there is form a sub-cabinet to focus solely on climate change. Understanding that it is real.

My critique: I don't know if it's man made or not. What I do know is it must be dealt with. In my position as governor of Alaska, I've formed a sub-cabinet of scientists, professionals, citizens who are focusing solely on climate issues and what needs to be done. In Alaska, we take this issue very seriously.

Couric: Is it man made in your opinion?

Palin: You know … there are man's activities that can be contributed to … the issues that we're dealing with now with these impacts. I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate. Because the world's weather patterns … are cyclical. And over history we have seen changes there. But kind of doesn't matter at this point, as we debate what caused it. The point is it's real, we need to do something about it. And like … Tony Blair had said … when he was in leadership position, he said, "Let's all consider the fact that it is real." So instead of pointing fingers … at different sides of the argument as to who is to blame, and if nature just to blame, let's do something about it. Let's clean up our world. Let's reduce emissions. And let's go with reality.

My critique: (You needed to answer the damn question in the first place: Is it man made:) I don't know, but we take climate change very seriously in Alaska.

Couric: Because, if it's not man-made, then one might wonder, well, how can human beings contribute to a solution?

Palin: Well, human beings certainly are contributing to pollution today. And to some adverse effects on the environment. And it's all of our jobs to do to clean things up. And that's what we're committed to doing.

My critque: I have to disagree with you, Katie, that the only way we can find motivation to do something about climate change is to think it's man made. We need to do something irregardless. And that's the point. Much of our pollution is man made and we need to continue to clean up our emissions and conserve our resources, whether this is a natural cycle or man made. We are committed to doing this.

Couric: So you do believe … that man is contributing to global warming, because you just said they're causing pollution. Of course, pollution causes global warming.

Palin: I believe that there are a lot of causes. And there is one effect. And one is changes in the climate. And there are things that we can do to make sure we're cleaning up the environment. I also formed an integrity office that solely is focused on petroleum, on pipelines, on those things that we do up there in Alaska to contribute to the U.S. domestic supply of energy. Where we can focus solely on environmental protections. There are a lot of things that I've done there in that arena of environmental protection that have kind of ticked off some in my own party thinking that I went too far. But I've always been of the mind that, you know, we gotta prove that we can do this right. Safely, ethically, environmentally friendly developments, or we're not gonna be allowed to unlock our lands and tap these supplies.

My critique: (See my critique above.)

Couric: John McCain proposed legislation calling for mandatory caps on global warming gases or CO2 emissions. Do you agree with that?

Palin: I support his position on that. Absolutely.

My critique: (It's hard to improve on this short and very definite answer.)

Couric: But he somewhat backtracked on the campaign trail saying it wouldn't, they wouldn't, the caps wouldn't be mandatory, they'd be voluntary. So what do you think? Do you think voluntary caps go far enough? Or they should be mandatory?

Palin: He's got a good cap and trade policy that he supports. And details are being hashed out even right now. But, in principle, absolutely, I support all that we can do to reduce emissions and to clean up this planet. And john McCain is right on board with that.

My critique: (Just answer the question, Palin.) I don't know. But if pressed, I'd say voluntary at this point.

Couric: Voluntary or mandatory in your view?

Palin: We're gonna keep working on how it can be implemented to actually make sense and make a difference...

My critique: (If you answer the question in the first place, Palin, she won't keep asking it. If you answer it and she keeps asking, then repeat your answer again:) I don't know, but if pressed, I'd say voluntary today. As more information comes in, I reserve the right to re-evaluate this position.

I'm voting for McCain/Palin whatever happens tonight. It's just I want her to do well, so I can vote for her enthusiastically.