I know a lot of you don’t know what it looks like, as it happens quite rarely during “silly season” (at least on major cable channels), but this is how it looks when you go out and talk to people about actual things that matter.

This is what real politicians do.  Go out and explain the reasons why our healthcare system needs to be fixed (international competition) and a bit about a governing philosophy (we can’t fix all your problems, but we should at least be aware of them).  Explain how you balanced a budget, and what happened when an “experienced” executive took over.  Explain what needs changing and how it could be better.  Pretty basic stuff.

“Image-based” politicians try to limit their exposure to the public.  For a great example of this, see: Bush, George W.

For a current example…watch the news…

Campaigning keeps Palin from media

Palin will spend much of the next few weeks campaigning with Sen. John McCain, a move that not only capitalizes on the Republican enthusiasm for the vice presidential nominee but also limits her exposure to the news media.She left Washington for Alaska on Wednesday, her first trip back home since being named to the ticket.

McCain and Palin traveling together limits her exposure to reporters and gives McCain’s top aides more control of her.

Palin has not done interviews after one she gave to People magazine on the day she was introduced as McCain’s vice presidential choice.

[full article…which includes this bit]

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, has sought to burnish her executive credentials by telling how she had engineered the deal that jump-started a long-delayed gas pipeline project.

Stretching more than 1,700 miles, it would deliver natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to the lower 48 states and be the largest private-sector infrastructure project on the continent.

Palin has asserted the pipeline will help lead America toward energy independence.

An examination of the project has found that she has overstated both the progress that has been made and the certainty of success.

The pipeline exists only on paper. The first section has yet to be laid, federal approvals are years away, and the pipeline will not be completed for at least a decade.

In fact, the pipeline might never be built.

Biden’s money quote from his speech: “Name me one single thing that John McCain and Sarah Palin are talking about, on the major issues,  the issues that affect our lives and our security.  Name me one, one, where they disagree with George W. Bush.”

Now this is kinda the point of the media here.  This is a pretty basic question that should be addressed.  It should be fairly easy to address.  Where are you different from Bush?   We keep hearing about “executive experience” and “mavrickness” but where is the meal?  The appetizer was fascinating, but is there a meal coming?

Or are we going to be told to go straight to dessert, and go eat some cake?