Democrats Fear That Expectations For Donald Trump Are A Wee Bit Too Low

CLEVELAND To say that the rollout of Sarah Palin as Sen. John McCains running mate in 2008 didnt go as planned would be putting it gently. In reality, it was a series of headaches and communications mishaps culminating in near calamity for the Republican Party .

An unknown governor from Alaska, Palin was engulfed by a highly curious, slightly vulturous press corps. Stories popped up about her husband belonging to the Alaska Independence Party. It was revealed that shed been investigated for an alleged vendetta against the head of the state police. It was revealed that her daughter was unwed and pregnant . The McCain campaign struggled to explain how being the commander of the National Guard of Alaska gave her foreign policy experience. Two prominent Republican consultants were caught on a live mic trashing her. NPR called it a Full-Fledged Feeding Frenzy.

As the date of Palins speech at the GOP convention neared, there was a sense that her vice presidential candidacy was imploding at the very moment it was supposed to launch.

In the midst of this misfire, however, Democrats were nervous. Not just because theyre preternaturally wired to be so. Officials fretted that the expectations for Palin had been set so painfully low that, were she simply to remain upright during her convention speech, shed win applause. The Obama campaign itself was more sanguine. But even they felt that Palin was being set up for a cushy reception, heavy on sympathy for the week of hell shed just endured.

I think there was an assumption that with expectations where they were, shed be able to put together a good speech, said Tommy Vietor, an Obama campaign spokesman that year who had gone to the location of the GOP convention to do counter-programming. I dont think there was any expectation shed be as good and as strong as she was.

Not only did Palin manage to stand in place for those 45 minutes. As Vietor noted, she delivered an address far more memorable than the one McCain would give a night later. The rave reviews that Democrats anticipated began flowing in.

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