Debate Prep Excercise

Time recently posted a "The Five Most Important People in Presidential Politics Who Aren’t Running for President" - in the article Brett O'Donnell, debate coach for Liberty University, is listed as fifth. Dr. O'Donnell has been a close debate prep adviser for McCain since the beginning of the primary election. Within the last few days, Brett transferred to Palin when he set up a "debate camp" for her at Senator McCain's ranch in Sedona, Arizona.

MSNBC First read wrote , "Given the extraordinary attention paid to the campaign and Palin's surprise selection as John McCain's running mate, it stands a strong chance of becoming the most-watched vice presidential debate ever. The standard was the 56.7 million viewers in 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman ever selected for a major party ticket."

For today at least, the McCain campaign is hurting, this weeks economic situation and the Palin gaffes in the Couric interview seem to be tanking their poll numbers (Zogby )

The Palin bounce is no longer. A Florida state poll indicates that after the RNC – Palin increased the likelihood of a voter picking up the ticket by 45% compared to 34%who said they were less likely to do so. Now the more likely" percentage is down to 40 percent -- while the "less likely" percentage is at 41 (Orlando Sentinel)

Here's my question - if you were Brett what would you do with your short time to prepare her for the debate? How do you rebuild the ethos of Palin as a viable VP candidate? Expectations are riding low for her performance. That’s good to an extent. All Palin needs to do is show that she can rationally respond to few questions. As long as she responds with short, eloquent, and easy to comprehend responses, the media spin will give her kudos. Winning or losing this debate means little. Making a fool of herself may risk losing the election.

Palin hit the nail on the head with her RNC speech. Her performance was well prepared and followed the Republican frames Lakoff outlined to the T. I have a hunch Dr. O’Donnell is showing her techniques on how to dodge questions by drawing bridges to answers that she knows well. These frames can help re-establish some of her ethos by drawing attention away from her and more towards the “liberal media” myth we heard so much about last class.

For the purpose of “stickiness” I expect Palin has been loaded with a few vivid yet simple anecdotes for every general area of inquiry. The McCain campaign will want there to be a few made for TV clips that the Media can repeat continuously for the next week.

I believe the priorities for O’Donnell and staff are as follows: 1. damage control. She cannot ramble incomprehensible statements. Limit response times, give straight answers. Although Palin was chosen to reinvigorate the conservative right, do not allow her to be a threat to those independents that identify with “strength” and “rational-facts” republicanism. 2. Play up the Washington “outsider” image. Use stories an anecdotes specific to Alaska that cannot be falsified. In doing so, Identify with rural swing voters. Do what Bush did in the 2000 election. Make yourself appear approachable and look like “that Girl” that people would like to have a drink with (or attend a hockey game).

Micro-Targeting – Our campaign has a list of voters that we are losing and/or can gain by election day. It appears to me, at least, that Palin has been oversaturated with micro-targeting information going into her interviews. The jumbled responses are Palin failing to become her advisers, their well constructed arguments are lost in the translation. Will Brett be able load Palin with some targeted quotes for this debate? Or has Palin proven to be a lost cause, and the primary objective of damage control will supersede?

Those are my two cents for today. See you tomorrow!