The Vice Presidential candidate debate Thursday was exciting as expected. Both Joe Biden and Sarah Palin were on their game. But there is no such thing as a tie in presidential politics, and since Palin had the most to lose in this debate I'm giving the trophy to her.
First off, I will say I appreciated the cordiality. Although I don't believe it was purely good manners. I think Biden's people told him, "DON'T ATTACK PALIN! You'll look like a monster picking on a woman." I think Palin's people said, "If you want to Attack Biden go ahead, but he'll rip you apart." It was a case of mutually assured destruction.
Of course, Biden and Palin had different goals going into the debate. Biden's was to outrun Palin. He needed to show everyone how much more presidential he was than she.
Palin's goals were to 1) not get run over, and 2) go on the offensive.
Biden flaunted his broad bank of knowledge to create distance, and it was impressive. He had excellent stats and anecdotes to make his points and a quick, intelligent sounding response to every question. But he didn't stick to the key messages of his campaign. He did talk about the failures of the Bush administration and linked McCain to Bush, but his vision for the future in an Obama administration seemed to get lost in those stats, anecdotes and intelligent sounding answers.
Palin showed she doesn't have the broad knowledge Biden does, but that didn't hurt her much. Palin stuck to what she knew, and to the messages she's been giving all along: We're mavericks, we're reformers, we are not Bush, I have executive experience, I'm a home grown, middle-class girl. She also succeeded in going on the offensive by putting a wedge between Obama and Biden - citing various points of disagreement.
There was only one thing that made me cringe about Palin's performance. She kept using the mispronunciation, "nucular," a gaffe made famous by George W. Bush.
Overall, the debate ended up pretty even. Biden didn't make the contrast he needed to, while Palin not only didn't get run over, she put Biden on the defensive several times.
Palin needed to show everyone that she could hold her own with the toughest of Washington politicians, and she did that.
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I didn't really watch the debate. I did howvere watch the aftermath on EVERY news station possible. Of course MSNBC said Biden won, but admitted Palin held her own etc. It was interesting what people said about her. One thing that the McCain camp was annoyed at was that Biden said many inaccurate things about things McCain supported etc. Kinda annoying. Oh well he is a great debater and sounds like he has been around the Washington block a while. I liked Palin a lot. I really like a spirit about her and I believe she would do Washington amazing. Is it enough to get them to Washington...hmmm not sure though I'd love it. I have a feeling that Obama got such great momentum from the failures of Wall Street that I don't know if McCain can make up the ground. We shall see. Good bloggen!!!
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