Talk Back: Reactions to the VP Debate
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| 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 Stein
Director of Community
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"Poppycock"?!?!?!? LOL!
>>What, I have to diagree with you that Bush is "well liked". I thought his approval rating was down to 25 or 30%.
I didn't bother to go back to my original post, but I *think* I said that he is well liked *for* his folksy way of speaking. In other words, many people (not everyone obviously) like the way he speaks to the country.
Clearly Bush is not very well liked. *smile* And that's why I think McCain is not such a good replacement. While he may have been a maverick in years past, since he ran for president in 2000, he has become more or less lock-step with Bush's policies.
Laura
Could be.
Really? I'd thought it had been quite a while since Bush was "well-liked."
Now, to be fair, that abominable 22% approval (and 70% DISapproval, holy mackerel, highest in history) rating does not measure "likability" specifically. Political commentators who actually have gotten a chance to spend some time with the President (unlike most of us), say that he actually IS a decent guy to hang out with on a personal level. But that doesn't stop them from turning right around in the next breath and pointing out the obvious - which is borne out in that above poll - which is that being a "great guy," even if true, does not equate to competence in such an important job. And that's Palin's problem right now....and why she was a bad choice for McCain: if we weren't still in the middle of an eight-year term of one of the simultaneously most "folksy, likeable" AND demonstrably incompetent and awful Presidents, Palin might have been a genius move. As it is, she certainly shored up and fired up the conservative base out in the country (though the conservative base who knows its stuff, in Washington, seems markedly less fired up than the rank and file). But as it is, in year eight of the Dubya Presidency, most people, particularly independents, if they get the urge to consider "folksiness" a good reason to vote for someone for President (or VP), are going to get that "ooooh, I burned my hand the last time I reached for that glowing blue flame" sensation. They're going to remember what happened the LAST time - BOTH times - they voted for "folksy" over "informed and competent." And it's not gonna be enough to change their minds.
>>I would much rather have a real person in there as VP than someone who has been caught up in all the Washington stuff for years.
I don't understand this use of the word "real." It's a common refrain, so I'm not picking on you specifically. Is Obama less real because he has been in the Senate? Is Biden? Is McCain? What makes a person real? And by default is anyone not like her "unreal" or fake?
If you mean that she's a Washington outsider, I get that. But to suggest that anyone who is not like Palin (I'm not) is somehow fake is really, well, insulting.
Laura
Indeed, one might even fairly describe Sarah Palin as a Glibertarian.
<>I like her because for years we have been saying that what we need is someone who hasn't been a part of Washington in the white house.
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