Game Change: The Palin vs Biden Debate.

The problems with Palin's preparation for her big debate with Joe Biden have already been addressed by other publications and blogs, but I found some interesting tidbits that I don't think have been reported elsewhere.

Right after Palin threw her "hissy fit" about her Katie Couric interview, she flew to Philadelphia to begin preparation for her debate.

The next two days, by all accounts, were a total train wreck. Never before had Palin's team seen her so profoundly out of sorts for such a sustained period. She wasn't eating (a few bites of steak day, no more). She wasn't drinking (maybe half a can of Diet Pepper; no water, ever). She wasn't sleeping (not much more than a couple hours a night, max). The index cards were piling up by the hundreds, but Palin wasn't absorbing the material written on them. When her aides tried to quiz her, she would routinely shut down--chin on her chest, arms folded, eyes cast to the floor, speechless and motionless, lost in what those around her described as a kind of catatonic stupor. (P 400)


On page 401, Mark Wallace tries to soothe Palin and tell her things were not so bad. This was her response.

"No," Palin answered darkly. "If I had known everything I know now, I would not have done this."

(Later on Palin will meet with Joe Lieberman and, after he prays with her and gives her words of encouragement, she will say the following: "Joe", she said. "I can't figure any other reason I'm here except that I was meant to be here".) (P 403) .)

But I digress, back to the debate preparation.

On Saturday, September 27, Wallace sent an urgent SOS to McCain headquarters. On a call with Schmidt, Davis, and Salter, he described how Palin was performing, how dire the circumstances were, especially with the debate just five days away. They began discussing a new and threatening possibility: that Palin was mentally unstable.

Schmidt had heard that Palin was accusing him of lying about the Alaska poll--in fact, it had been conducted; her approval rating was in the seventies--which led him to believe that she was becoming irrational. He and Davis planned to take the train to Philadelphia the next day to assess the situation themselves. (P 401)

Schmidt and Davis arrived and were appalled by the scene they found. The room was hot and claustrophobic; the shades were drawn. The place was full of half-eaten hotel food and stank of moldering french fries. Palin, looking dazed, was surrounded, as usual, by stacks and stacks of index cards.

Schmidt thought Palin looked thin and drawn. Your road crew tells me that you are not sleeping, he said. No one running for the office of vice president should be getting less than eight hours of sleep a night. If you need to take sleeping pills, you should.

Schmidt then brusquely brought up Palin's weight. It's my understanding that you might be on the Atkin's diet, he said. That goofy diet is bad for you. I want you off of it today. I'm alarmed by your weight loss and it's noticeable even in just a couple of weeks. In order to perform at your highest level, you have to have a balanced diet.

Palin offered no a word of protest. (P 402)

The McCain camp is so worried about Palin's debate performance that they fly her to McCain's spread in Sedona. The also fly in Republican political advisor Mark McKinnon.

After dinner, they all retreated to a small room tightly packed with two lecterns and a camera, in one of the McCain compound's guest buildings. A run through was attempted, in which Palin kept getting lost fifteen seconds into the answers, stopping suddenly and saying, No, no, wait, let me start over, or , Shoot, I don't know this.

The session ended after an hour. Schmidt, Mark Wallace, and McKinnon stepped outside into the cool desert air, the night pitch black around them.

"What do you think?" Wallace asked McKinnon.

"Oh. My. God." (P 404)

As we all know Palin did manage to get herself together and did a passable job in the debate with Joe Biden. But it may be informative to read what "Game Change" has to say about Biden's preparation for that same debate.

The Obamans were pushing a simple strategy: Ignore Palin. Don't engage her. Whatever happens, don't let her lure you down any rabbit holes with her crazy syntax and run-on sentences.

But Joe couldn't resist--not at first. A week or two before the three days of formal debate camp started on September 29, the campaign put him through his paces in a mock run-through against Anita Dunn. She played the part by reading from a script assembled almost entirely out of verbatim Palin quotes. That's too incoherent, Biden exclaimed. Is that really what she says? No, that can't be her answer. But, I mean, she's not saying anything. How am I supposed to respond to that, folks? (P 406)

During the debate Biden behaved himself. He did NOT attack Palin, nor one up her with his superior debate skills. He played it safe, and remained passive enough to allow Palin to pull off a draw. This may have been because Obama's camp was very aware of how Palin loved to play the victim, and they realized that being too aggressive might simply cause her supporters to become even more rabid in their defense of her.

When it was over, the Obamans exhaled and Biden was triumphal. Coming off the stage, he said to his aides, "You guys owe me. You don't know how much restraint that took." (P 407)