A VP Debate Recap

I caught ther debate on CNN and laughed outloud when GOP analyst Ed Rollins scored a positive point for Governor Palin just for walking onstage and shaking Senator Joe Biden’s hand. 

In a nutshell; Biden was presidential.  Palin was mayoral.

Biden’s biggest gaffe of the night was incorrectly citing Article I of the Constitution describing the authority of the executive branch and the Vice President’s role (it’s Article II). Palin seems in favior of expanding the VP’s power and suggested that there was definition within the Constitution to do that (no, there isn’t).

No question that Palin is telegenic and was well-rehersed for the debate.  But the winking, hokem comments and inability to get beyond beauty pageant answers really showed just how shallow she is.  Most telling, her refusal to answer one question completely to go off topic tells me she wasn’t ready to answer.  And the comment about speaking directly to the American people without the filter of the mainstream media was utter bull.  Three interviews in a month is not the MSM’s fault, especially since two of those interviews demonstrated a massive fail on her understanding of basic points required of someone one heartbeat away from the Oval Office.  She also mispronounced the name of our military commander in Afghanistan, but maybe its just that accent.

Biden gave the performance of his life.  He defended his record and Senator Obama’s record. He was respectful of Governor Palin though he had multiple opportunities to hammer her on earmarks.  In the end, five of the six CNN analyst scored Biden the winner (Rollins called it a blow out for Palin).  His best moment of the night was on describing how John McCain is NOT a maverick.

Since Palin didn’t drool on herself or run crying from the room, I’m sure the right wingers will declare her a victory.  But you cannot, with any amount of credability, position your ticket as one that will strictly oversee Wall Street when the top of the ticket has a well-documented 26 year career as an advocate for deregulation.

 

8 Comments

  1. I hate to say it, but I actually like her better than I did before. Even Biden seemed captivated by her. Wouldn’t vote for her for VP, but she seems like a decent person and I kind of felt sorry for her. The Republican political machine tried to use her as a pawn to get the disgruntled-Hillary-supporter vote, and now that that hasn’t worked they are stuck with someone who is utterly unqualified. I think this election will go down as one of the most memorable of our time, and it has certainly gotten the voters interested, which on the whole is good thing.

  2. She is a charming person -wink, wink,wink.

    She know many of the slogans and pitch lines but not a whole lot about the product.

    Like a….

    Spokesmodel

  3. I knew that she lost a whole lot of moderate supporters (as was confirmed later) the moment she, after a dramatic pause, characterized the Obama-Biden Iraq withdrawal plan as “waving the white flag of surrender.” That comment must have been music to the ears… of about 15% of Americans.

    Homewrecker, I still contend that the main reason KARL ROVE picked her for McCain’s running mate (he wanted Lieberman) was her Christianist cred. Rove has always felt the GOP can’t win an election without those evangelical/fundamentalists, and they are the ones who were most excited by her. [see: Jubal’s rhapsodies.] Her gender and eye-candy quality were secondary benefits.

  4. I think that the best comment on the debate came from The Guardian, a paper from the UK. We need to think a bit about how others see us, and they were not kind. “Evidently, Palin’s pre-debate handlers judged her incapable of speaking on a fairly wide range of subjects, and so instructed to her to simply disregard questions that did not invite memorised talking points or cutesy filibustering. They probably told her to play up her spunky average-ness, which she did to the point of shtick – and dishonesty.” Read the rest yourself. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/03/sarah.palin.debate.feminism

  5. Rove had nothing to do with it Vern. Likely Davis and Schmidt. Rove dissed the VA gov on Obama’s short as being a lightweight.

  6. If you are going to publish a commentary on this website, get someone to proof it for you. It is annoying to read anything with spelling and punctuation errors. You can blame pronunciation on accent, but what do you blame spelling errors on—-ignorance?

  7. Thanks for the reality check Trish; I went in and fixed them. Typos are something we all do, on this blog and others. That’s no excuse and we’ll strive to do better.

  8. the GOP wouldn’t dare schedule any more unscripted air time for Palin b/c this will give people more time to realize that she doesn’t have a clue… the prospect of her becoming the Commander in Chief is frightening

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