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    Her Only Achilles' Heel: Lack of an Achilles' Heel

    Posted Thursday, October 02, 2008 10:53 PM | By Dana Stevens
    The most telling moment for me: Gwen Ifill asks both candidates to acknowledge their own worst flaws, their “Achilles' heels.” Biden jokingly thanks Ifill for suggesting that his worst flaw may be a lack of self-discipline before citing his “excessive passion” for the American people. A little disingenuous, to be sure, like the moment you tell a prospective boss that your only fault is working too hard. But Palin? She says nothing to address Ifill’s question in the entire 90 seconds of vaguely patriotic gobbledygook that follow (though somewhere in there Ronald Reagan makes an appearance, along with the shining city on the hill too, though, also). In other words, when directly asked to talk about any imperfections in her character or record, she ignores the question. Given George Bush’s well-established aversion to introspection, shouldn’t her handlers have coached her to have some kind of response prepared for this utterly foreseeable question? Or is obliviously high self-regard now considered a positive quality in a leader?
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