Surprising Outcomes

[akirlu]

Who would have guessed that one of the outcomes of the Vice Presidential race, and last night's debates for that matter, is the rising currency of Katie Couric's world-class interviewing skills?

Okay, sarcasm aside, it isn't just that Katie Couric is better than Gwen Ifill, it's that she really has been showing surprising chops with sweet, persistent, deadly follow-up questions. I never was impressed with Couric before, but increasingly, I am.

For James Fallow's somewhat more extensive analysis of the Veep debates, see here.

I gotta confess I was hoping for a Katie Couric moment. I'm guessing the 11th hour cries of "Ifill is biased," pretty much precluded that, though. Almost as if they planned it that way. Nobody does discourse suppression like the right.

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Couric's interviewing technique, at least in the Palin interview(s), is similar to mine: a follow up question ala "could you be more specific." I've done that a lot in recent weeks. Probably, we have the same source: Barbara Walters. Though I don't recall specifically (!) what I got from her book; it was a long time ago. And let's be fair: It's easy to make Palin look like a fool.

[daystreet.livejournal.com]

I think you are right about Couric's skill set vis-a-vis following up, etc., but I do think Ifill was somewhat crippled[*] (haha) by the format agreed to by the campaigns. As much as I like Ifill, though, I have to admit Couric has her beat on the Palin front.

[*] I watch her "Washington Week" every weekend and, judging from what I know about her skill set, I did get the feeling that she was probably on some pain killers last night for her broken ankle. Not making excuses, just observing.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, doh! I had heard about the ankle and managed to totally forget again. Yes, you're probably right that she was either on drugs or distracted by pain. Either way, sub-optimal. Possibly, she should have let someone else take the slot.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

538.com were of the opinion that the Democrats should have pushed for her to be removed due to the book thing because it didn't matter. They might have been right.

Frankly, Palin would have had to freeze and run off stage to do worse than expectations last night. The thing that impressed me was Biden. It might not have been a blow out win but he "won" in terms of how he is viewed.

Hell, if Pat Buchanan can be on TV saying that Palin won but it doesn't matter because Obama now looks like the president, it's not a good sign for the GOP.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Not good for McCain/Palin, but superb for the GOP. They've extracted at least a trillion dollars more from the Treasury, to be disbursed -- without serous accounting -- by their appointed agents, have assured that the (probable) upcoming Democratic Administration & Congress will be able to accomplish practically nothing obviously-beneficial to the people, and have set the scene for a big Republican Re-Assumption of Power in four (or possibly eight) years. That Regime may well persist for most of the remainder of this century.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

That's certainly one of the outcomes. I still have to focus on optimistic outcomes. Come back to me after November 4th though.

I'm still not convinced by the polls.