Talk Back: Reactions to the VP Debate

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-16-2003
Talk Back: Reactions to the VP Debate
788
Thu, 10-02-2008 - 5:14pm

Hi everyone --


We wanted to get your reaction to the Vice Presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. Did you watch? What did you think -- and who do you consider the winner? Were there any surprises? Tell us what you considered to be the highlights, the low points and everything in between.


 


Please note: This discussion will be featured on our homepage as well as our Election 2008 feature page (http://www.ivillage.com/0,,dkrjhqbk,00.html) and may elicit some "Guest" responses from our "Talkback" box tool on the page. Inappropriate responses that violate our Terms of Service will be removed.


Thanks for your input!

Caryn D. Stein
Director of Community
Photobucket

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-03-2008
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:25am

I realize that no matter WHO gets into office...my taxes are going up. I think both candidates cannot say where they will decrease spending yet...because they do not know yet. Once they are President they will have a chance to look at everything and make a decision.

The point of my previous post was that Obama's plan...as it stands right now....will be disastrous for this economy. McCain's probably isn't any better. You would know better...your the econ major.

Basically, I think both politicians are a lot of talk. Both are telling the people what they want to hear but neither can deliver on those promises. There just aren't enough rich people (>$250K) to tax in order to pay for all of the programs Obama wants to implement. I think most people are delusional on this.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2006
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:27am
I heard that too. Guess it ties the two together by combining their names.


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2006
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:28am
What, I have to diagree with you that Bush is "well liked". I thought his approval rating

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2008
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:32am
If she had called them "Bosniacs" it would be all over the news today and she has only been in the political arena for a short time! Biden has been in the Senate for 30 years. You must admit it was a stupid mistake.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-25-2006
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:34am

Does anyone see the sharp contrast between Sarah Palin and any other female legislator or female newscaster we see on TV?

I saw Michelle ???, a republican rep from MN on CSPAN and she is so intelligent and articulate. Katie Couric, Ann Coulter, Gwen Ifill, Greta Van Susteren, Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell and any other newscaster know so much more than SP when it comes to ANY political discussion on ANY topic.

Why is SP in the picture at all? The fact that Republicans selected her just because she's attractive (way more attractive than Biden, according to Pat Buchannan--geez! glad he pointed THAT out--I never would have guessed it) and a maverick is bizarre. In so much that the Republicans do, they send the message that the average citizen is a dummy. What a strange premise on which to base a presidential campaign:

They're dumb, just distract them...they won't understand, you can tell them anything....they're gullible, you can lie/deceive....they're poor, they don't understand the difference between a warrant and a share of stock.....they're obsessed with beauty, all you have to do is smile a lot....they're like you, just wink at them and they'll connect with you....all the women are hockey moms, just use those words and we'll get their vote.

-----------------------------------------------
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:35am

Okay, my take.


First, let me repeat what a ex-vice president said about the job. "The vice presidency isn't worth a bucket of warm spit."


As to the difference between the two, the reasons for their selection becomes obvious during the debate. Palin is on the McCain ticket to keep the base pumped up and to take the president's talking points to the country, a task that vice presidents do. Biden is on the Obama ticket to help the president move his proposed legislation through the legislative process, a task vice presidents also do. Biden demonstrated a deep knowledge of the world and the legislative process, as sort of institutional memory, so to speak. Palin demonstrated the ability to repeat the talking points, while ignoring distractions.


If there was a mistake on either side, it was when Palin referred to a timetable for a withdraw from Iraq as "waving the white flag of surrender." As someone who was against a direct involvment in

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-25-2008
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:35am

Could not disagree more.

Near the end of the debate, Palin responded to a question about what she perceived her own Achilles heel to be, she answered a fairly rote answer about being a mom and having a special needs kid and wondering about paying for college and health care, and raising a family and worrying. When it was his turn, Biden answered that he knew what it was like to be a single parent, and to struggle financially, and what it was like to have a child that you weren't sure was going to make it (referring to the horrible car crash that killed his first wife and daughter, and gravely injured both his sons). He actually choked up as he said "going to make it." He ended by saying, respectfully, "I understand, as well as, with all due respect, the governor or anybody else, what it's like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They're looking for help. They're looking for help. They're not looking for more of the same."

It was a VERY human moment, one you can't script or plan for. Biden doesn't reference his personal tragedy often, and he doesn't try to make political hay out of it. But because it was the obvious answer to Palin's discussion of her own "just-folks"-iness and kitchen-table issues, Biden made reference to it last night. And it still, after all these years, choked him up just a bit. I don't know if I'd be that composed, even after thirty five years, if I talked about the death of my wife and daughter and the maiming of my son.

The human thing to do at that point, for Palin, would have been to acknowledge it, even if only through body language, to indicate sympathy and a shared sense of understanding the fear and worry that comes with a child with severe challenges. What did Palin ACTUALLY do? Retreat into yet another stock, prepared answer about John McCain's "maverickness":

"People aren't looking for more of the same. They are looking for change. And John McCain has been the consummate maverick in the Senate over all these years.

He's taken shots left and right from the other party and from within his own party, because he's had to take on his own party when the time was right, when he recognized it was time to put partisanship aside and just do what was right for the American people....Also, John McCain's maverick position that he's in, that's really prompt up to and indicated by the supporters that he has. Look at Lieberman, and Giuliani, and Romney, and Lingle, and all of us who come from such a diverse background of -- of policy and of partisanship, all coming together at this time, recognizing he is the man that we need to leave -- lead in these next four years, because these are tumultuous times."

Sorry, but that just doesn’t - to me, anyway - add up to "she connected, he didn't." I think people often see what they want to see out of these debates, but when even people like Pat Buchanan (on MSNBC) can recognize that Biden had a very authentic moment - one of the rare ones in any such debate where you see the "real person" - I think he connected quite well. Palin's "folksiness" certainly seemed more "connected to the average person" on the surface, but it was all canned, which became increasingly apparent as the night wore on and the winking and verbal vernacular became more obviously pre-planned.


Visitor (not verified)
anonymous user
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:36am
Biden
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:39am

See, the difference between you and me is that I'm not jumping on either of them for small errors in speaking.

Photobucket
Visitor (not verified)
anonymous user
Fri, 10-03-2008 - 9:39am
First and foremost. If you seen the debate, then I dont think it would be hard for you to acknowledge who won. Biden totally ripped her apart. First Palin didnt even know the President of Iraq, and how many troops were over there. She didn't know anything about deregulation. I must say that I her information was very stripped, and rheresed. AND IT WAS VERY EVIDENT OF THAT.. I Feel like she could have answered the questions directly instead of beating around the bush. She did bring a warmth to the debate. HOWEVER IF I HEAR MAVERICK, HOCKEY MOM, PARDONSHIP, AND SPECIAL NEEDS MOM, I AM GOING TO VOMIT. sorry but sarah palin has no idea about being vp..

Pages