The Expectations Game

One constant of any election is the expectations game.

Political observers create a conventional wisdom on candidate performance — an over/under, if you will — and then obsess as to whether a candidate can meet or exceed these self-created expectations.

Without question, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has benefited from the expectations game.

The Democrats, much of the mainstream media and certainly “Saturday Night Live” have effectively lowered the bar for Palin so that what would normally be a double could now be considered a home run. If Palin demonstrates a command of the issues and a rhetorical feistiness challenging Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), she’ll have done her job and won the debate.

This is the same scenario Gov. Palin found herself in before her address to the Republican National Convention — where low expectations, combined with a strong speech (and one great adlibbed line), excited the party for the first time since perhaps Election Day 2004.

Gov. Palin has performed ably in interviews the mainstream media has not talked about. In yesterday’s Sean Hannity interview and Hugh Hewitt’s earlier in the week, Palin was at her best. And for those who say Republicans on a conservative radio show will get a softball interview, think again. Conservative interviews are not necessarily friendly interviews — questions are asked to ascertain specific policy beliefs on lightning-rod issues. On conservative radio, there’s no hiding on an issue such as amnesty.

Surely, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee recorded the interviews. They should know better than anyone that the expectations game they created could help Gov. Palin.