NYTimes piece on Palin

Guest   Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:56 am GMT
"Instead, she has been the bell-jar candidate, barnstorming safe crowds with socko punch lines and plans for a single interview on ABC News built around a visit to Fairbanks, Alaska, and her hometown of Wasilla."
1)bell-jar candidate
2) barnstorming safe crowds
3) with socko punch lines and plans for a single interview
4) built around a visit to Fairbanks

Could any of you explain what the author means by each one of these points?
Uriel   Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:21 pm GMT
1)bell-jar candidate

Not sure, but perhaps it means she is on display, yet shielded from actual interaction, as an item would be if it were kept under a bell jar. In other words, her handlers are putting her out there to be seen, but sheltering her from hard questions.

2) barnstorming safe crowds

"Barnstorming" is an old aviation term. Back in the old days, when biplanes were just getting started, pilots would show off their aerial tricks at state fairs and other gatherings, often flying ldangerously ow over barns and other buildings as part of the show. A "safe" crowd would be one made up of people already sympathetic to Palin's political views.

3) with socko punch lines and plans for a single interview

Socko punch lines or zingers or one-liners are short statements designed to stir up enthusiasm by being funny or pointed or provocative. "Socko" is a comic-book "sound effect" like "pow!" that usually denotes landing a punch or a kick. It's also similar to "rock 'em, sock 'em". To "sock" someone is to punch them with a fist.

A single interview is just one interview.

4) built around a visit to Fairbanks

If an interview is "built around" something, it is part of a larger scheme or activity -- in this case, a visit to Fairbanks. In other words, you will probably see Palin walking around the city, talking to people, getting a little bit of the local flavor, and showing her personality and views in that context, rather than just sitting her down one-on-one in a studio.
Billington   Sun Sep 21, 2008 11:52 pm GMT
Is she still doing this?
Uriel   Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:16 am GMT
I don't know. Haven't paid much attention to her.

I suspect that now that the novelty of her nomination and the curiosity about her has faded, she is having to actually sit down and answer tough questions. The shock of all these banks, mortgage houses, and insurance carriers tanking at once is bringing the hard issues back to the fore, and sound bites won't cut it at this point. She'll have to articulate a lot more at length, with more substance.
Amabo   Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:58 am GMT
"She'll have to articulate a lot more at length, with more substance."

Hmm...

If anything, expect both sides - Obama and Mccain - to become even more evasive on just how they'll build Utopia in America; heavy on rhetoric, light on detail. That $700 billion in new US Government debt will certainly put a crimp on any plans for spending. It does make Obama's economics look like pie in the sky now.*

We're into the tactical endgame of the election now and the only important thing is voter perception.

* And I'm not being partisan here; McCain's free-enterprise approach looks equally dodgy now too.
Uriel   Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:15 am GMT
I just don't see any one guy fixing this economic mess. If it's the product of runaway deregulation, well, that started under Reagan -- and it won't be fixed in one term, either!

I DO expect rhetoric versus substance in any election -- that's what all candidates do ("Vote for me, and I will wave my magic wand and make everything all wonderful!"). It's a game voters have to play every four years -- sift through the oratory to figure out who sounds less full of it, and less full of it in a way that you happen to agree with. No wonder Americans hold oratical skills in such low esteem!
Guest   Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:32 am GMT
The elections wont make much difference to Americans (as long as they're not in the military) but it will make a difference to the millions of Iranians with an atomic bomb hanging over their heads.
Damian in Dunfermline   Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:32 am GMT
All those expressions are so typically American........we have elections here in Britland coming up sometime before June 2010 at the very latest under our our Parliamentary legislation, but we doubt very, very much indeed that the same coverage will be given to our political circus over on the other side of The Puddle as theirs is are over here with ever increasing tiresome, utterly boring yawn inducing effects....but the frenetic yelling, screeching banner/flag waving razzmatazz pantomime can be fun to watch if you've nothing better to do at the time.

We shall have thousands of candidates fighting for the 650 odd Parliamentary seats in the House of Commons but who knows (or cares) how many of them will be classsed as bell-jars - they, like the rest of the general British populace wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a bell-jar and a jar of marmite I reckon.

Barnstoming - not used much here at all but the word does exist in BE - it means touring remoter rural districts with a troupe of entertainers putting on theatrical type shows or athletic or acrobatic displays for all the locals, but it sounds a wee bit old fashioned as I don't think that happens so much these days due to the greater mobility of people, and distances between cities, towns and villages are infinitely shorter in the UK than they are in America....here places are all so much closer to each other anyway, comparatively speaking.

Socko punch lines? Americana at its finest. Punch lines - used here, but socko? Nope.......I've never heard of that anyway.

Built around? Yep - used here....to build around something - to lay the foundations for any kind of situation or issue thus making it a viable prospect.

As for this woman Sarah Palin - the only UK newspaper who devotes much in the way of column space to her is The Daily Torygraph (sorry, typo - Telegraph) and that comes as no surprise at all bearing in mind its over-riding agenda.
Damian   Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:33 am GMT
"""side of The Puddle as theirs is are over here *** - delete the word "is".
Uriel   Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:47 am GMT
We don't use atomic bombs anymore. That's so '40's. It's all nuclear these days -- way more powerful. But we seem to get just as much bang for our buck -- there's another American expression, I imagine -- with conventional weapons, so we're unlikely to go vaporizing anyone anytime soon. Radiation is such an annoyance....