Originally posted by callat703:
I'll pose two questions about the debate and the subsequent analysis:
1) If Sarah Palin were a man, would her performance be judged as favorably?
2) If Barack Obama had used African American colloquialisms in any speech the way that Sarah Palin used small town colloquialisms, how would people have reacted?
1) i don't see her gender having a role in her post-debate evaluation. quayle proved, in a slightly different way, that men can appear feeble-minded or ditzy too. i believe that her performance last night was judged favorably because it was so much better than her past TV appearances. the fact that she's a woman didn't figure in my evaluation, i don't know what it means for others tho.
2) over-all, i think people would react negatively and it would definitely be to obama's detriment. it might attracted african americans, who are largely already backing him; and alientated some non-blacks. i believe that more people can relate to "oh sure you betcha" than to ebonics. small-towness is nowhere comparable to racial issues.
