Quote Originally Posted by RoadRunner6
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However, when It comes to extemporaneous speaking, Sarah Palin is more articulate and impressive. To mock her folksy Alaskan demeanor is unreasonable. I was there on business many times and their friendliness is real and refreshing. I have to agree with Sticks that when off the teleprompter, Obama is somewhat hesistant and almost seems to stammer at times. Her being a former television reporter undoubtedly helps in her on camera professionalism and smoothness.

Unfortunately, the far left and far right seem to jump on any opportunity to pounce on their opponent with questionable comments. This humors me from the reports that Palin was unaware that Africa was a continent to Obama being a muslim (both nonsense). They both seemed to me to be underqualified, experience wise, for the offices they were seeking.


Here's the thing - the majority of Palin's speeches and appearanced during the campaign were the sort of lob-balled, canned, pre-prepared question and answer stuff that every candidate does well at these days - Even Bush. The ones that weren't pre-canned she was either very good with, or very bad. There was no mediocre with her. She'll be practicing I'm sure.

The presidential candidates faced much harder impromptu questions and had much more stress and consequence associated with their responses. I don't put much weight in the "umms" and "uhhs" a person might interrupt their repsonses with. That's no big deal, every public speaker I've ever seen has been reduced to that from time to time. It's actually a positive, it shows Obama can thing fast and deeply on his feet while still delivering a coherent response with precision. McCain did much of the same, and I thought was underrated himself.
What you usually get with politicians is a "the same ol' answer" to questions of common themes, which gives us nothing new, and sometimes, not even the answer to the question we want. Just catchphrases and slogans. Neither of those guys did that.

I personally felt McCain and Obama were two of the better impromptu responders in recent history, umhs and uhhhs aside, they were sincere, intelligent, and didn't dodge or can their responses. Hope that's a sign of things to come.