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.
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Thanks for your input!
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Did she speak about race, whcih for some reao=n makes my point.
Joe Biden was brilliant, as usual. He was knowledgeable, charming, funny, in control, and assertive. He hit the McCain campaign with missiles that went unchallenged by Sarah Palin. Joe talked about John's horrible voting record with women, ending the war, healthcare, and regulation. Sarah could not disagree that McCain's policies mirror and Xerox Bush43's, and it made her look weak.
Then she tried to connect with the American people only to be counter punched her opponent. Joe reached out to the American people, too, and connected with stories and emotion, and a deep understanding of the problems that we face and the solutions that he and Barack have in their arsenal.
Sarah was a litany of regurgitated talking points. I watch a lot of TV coverage and read online and newspaper articles, and noticed that Sarah repeated verbatim, her campaign speeches and painfully vacuous interviews. Read and rehearsed, punctuated and difficult to follow. Many times, I asked my friend, what the hell did she just say? lol. She talked in circles, often answering the question by restating the question.
Most of the time, she didn't address the question at all! That in itself is proof that she failed miserably as a debater. Also, she rarely followed up on the stated topic, instead choosing to focus on what the McCain camp has convinced her that she is...an energy expert. lol. Yeah, compared to her 5 children, perhaps. lol. But not in any state, any country, or any planet.
Simply talking and saying words one after the other does not a great debater make. lol. Although, her rambling did leave me wondering, on a few occasions, 'what was the question, again'? lol. So fillerbustering was almost effective at steering Joe off topic.
Sarah is vapid. She's a puppet just like McCain and Bush43. She doesn't belong anywhere near the gov't. I think I have said this before, but it surely bares repeating. Joe is smarter, more informed, and diplomatic than Sarah will ever be. As witnessed by her announcement that she will not be "filtered" by the main stream media, and probably will stick to the written, practiced speech.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Arianna Huffington:
VP Debate: McCain's Big Gamble Comes Up Snake Eyes
Watching the debate at a Fortune women's conference, I asked Meg Whitman, the co-chair of McCain's campaign, what she thought of Palin's performance. "Good enough," she said. But good enough for what, exactly? After Thursday night, the only thing Palin proved herself good enough for is starring in her own reality show.
Watching Biden and Palin on the same stage was like watching a tennis champion walk onto Centre Court at Wimbledon only to find himself facing an over-eager toddler holding a tennis racket on the other side of the net.
The only subject on which Palin displayed superior knowledge was when she corrected Biden on the proper delivery of "Drill, baby, drill!" Christie Hefner thought Palin's sex-tinged twist on the chant should be appropriated for a commercial. Perhaps for Viagra. My patience with Sarah Palin is waving the white flag of surrender.
Sarah did not defend McCain at all! When asked a question that wasn't written on her index cards, she repeated her talking points over and over. Why did Sarah let Joe stomp all over John ? Because she can't think on her feet. She either needs coaching practice or a Teleprompter. lol.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&refer=home&sid=agfv9hrJH9lE
Bloomberg Press
Palin Says Democrats Looking Back as Biden Ties McCain to Bush
By Ken Fireman and Kristin Jensen
Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin combined a folksy appeal to Middle America with relentless criticism of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as she sought to establish her fitness for national office.
Her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, repeatedly tried to tie Republican presidential nominee John McCain to what he called the failed policies of incumbent George W. Bush during a vice presidential debate in St. Louis last night.
Palin, 44, sometimes used humor in seeking to deflect Biden's criticisms as backward-looking partisanship that she said gave voters little idea of how he and Obama would govern.
``Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backward,'' Palin said at one point. ``Now, doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future.''
Biden, the 35-year Washington veteran, also sought to project a human side. One of the more poignant moments of the debate was when he choked up speaking about how he understands the trials that Americans face.
He mentioned raising two children on his own and not knowing whether a child is going to live. Biden, 65, was a single father after his first wife and daughter died in a car accident in 1972; one of his sons, Beau, is now headed to Iraq.
``The notion that somehow, because I'm a man, I don't know what it's like to raise two kids alone, I don't know what it's like to have a child you're not sure is going to -- is going to make it -- I understand.''
Populist Note
Palin struck a populist note early in the debate, blasting ``predator lenders'' and Wall Street for bringing on the nation's financial crisis.
``There was deception there, and there was greed and there is corruption on Wall Street,'' Palin said. ``We're going to follow through on that, getting rid of that corruption.''
Biden blamed McCain for not fighting in the past for more oversight. He pointed out that McCain said ``I'm always for less regulation'' in a Wall Street Journal interview.
``We let Wall Street run wild,'' Biden said. ``John McCain, and he's a good man, but John McCain thought the answer is that tried-and-true Republican response: deregulate, deregulate.''
Palin often avoided engaging the substance of questions on such issues as health care or bankruptcy legislation, instead pivoting away to advertise her middle-class roots and values.
Best Barometer
On the first question from moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS, she was asked whether the wrangling over an economic-rescue package on Capitol Hill represented the best or worst of Washington. Palin replied that the best barometer of the economy can be found at a soccer game.
``Turn to any parent there on the sideline and ask them, `How are you feeling about the economy?''' Palin said. ``And I'll bet you, you're going to hear some fear.''
At one point, Palin even advertised her lack of responsiveness, saying, ``I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record.''
Biden won the debate, according to 46 percent of respondents in a CBS News poll afterward of 473 people who said they weren't yet committed to a candidate; 21 percent said they thought Palin triumphed.
`Surge' Strategy
The candidates clashed over foreign policy issues, especially Iraq and Afghanistan. Palin said Obama's plan to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months constituted ``a white flag of surrender''; Biden said McCain had no plan to end the war.
Palin, paraphrasing McCain, said the ``surge'' strategy that the Bush administration adopted in Iraq needs to be exported to Afghanistan. That drew a sharp retort from Biden, who said the U.S. commander in Afghanistan ``said the surge principle in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan.''
Palin disputed that point, mispronouncing Army General David McKiernan's name as she did so: ``McClellan did not say definitively the surge principles would not work in Afghanistan.''
McKiernan, in a briefing at the Pentagon two days ago, said U.S. forces in Afghanistan can't copy a central element of American military success in Iraq -- directly recruiting local tribes to support them -- because the Afghan tribal structure is far more complex and has been shattered by 30 years of war.
``What I find in Afghanistan,'' McKiernan said, ``is a degree of complexity in the tribal system which is much greater than what I found in Iraq.''
Losing Points
The debate came as polls show that Palin has been losing points with voters. Conservative commentators including George Will and Kathleen Parker have questioned Palin's qualifications, and she's trying to overcome stumbles during recent TV interviews that have caused concern in party circles.
In one interview, with CBS, Palin had trouble naming any U.S. Supreme Court decisions she disagreed with other than the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
In a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times national poll taken Sept. 19-22, 46 percent of registered voters said she wasn't qualified to be president, compared with 41 percent who said she was. The poll showed that hopes she might draw more women to the ticket are misplaced: 49 percent of women said they planned to vote for Obama and Biden; 40 percent picked McCain and Palin.
Charlie Cook, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington, said Palin's performance last night may allay some concerns about her ability to serve as vice president.
`Only Good Thing'
``A lot of Republicans have to feel relieved,'' Cook said. ``This debate is the only good thing to happen to Republicans all week.''
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said the ``new information'' from the debate was that Palin ``could hold her own on tough questions with a much more experienced senator.''
Biden has had his own missteps. During an interview with the same CBS anchor, Katie Couric, Biden pointed to former President Franklin Roosevelt as an example of a good leader during a crisis. He said Roosevelt immediately got on television to talk about the stock market crash in 1929. The only problem was that Herbert Hoover was president at the time and Americans didn't have televisions.
Overshadowed by Palin
Yet Biden's penchant for gaffes is well-known and any missteps have been overshadowed by the attention on Palin. In the Bloomberg poll, 68 percent of registered voters said they believed Biden had the necessary experience, compared with 15 percent who said he doesn't.
During the debate, the candidates also clashed on domestic issues. Palin accused Obama of voting 94 times in the Senate to raise taxes or block tax cuts; Biden retorted that by that criterion, McCain has voted for higher taxes 477 times. ``It's a bogus standard,'' he said.
On health care, Palin touted McCain's plan to provide a $5,000 tax credit for those buying their own health insurance. Biden replied that McCain would pay for that benefit by taxing employer-provided coverage, which he said would cause millions of people to lose such benefits.
``I call that the ultimate bridge to nowhere,'' he said, alluding to a controversial transportation project in Palin's home state of Alaska.
`Maverick'
Palin used the word ``maverick'' six times during the debate to describe herself and McCain. Toward the end, Biden took her on over that point, saying: ``He has been no maverick on the things that matter to people's lives.''
Before tonight, there had been seven face-offs for vice presidential candidates since debates became a standard part of presidential elections in 1976. While some have offered memorable lines -- such as when Democrat Lloyd Bentsen told Republican Dan Quayle ``you are no Jack Kennedy'' in 1988 --none have changed the dynamics of the race.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ken Fireman in Washington at kfireman1@bloomberg.net; Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 3, 2008 01:01 EDT
**I thought it was very obvious when Biden discussed his roots that the delivery was practiced repeatedly. To me, it seemed like an uncomfortable topic for him, and he had to rehearse the delivery. **
You can think that if you want, but I have lived in DE, specifically Wilmington which is just below Claymont, the steel town he was referring to and I can tell you that he is just like that off the debate stage. He attends my parents church so we have met him many times - nothing rehearsed about the topic of his roots. He is much beloved in that little area of the world because he does 'keep it real' and he is 'just a regular guy'. Plus he is smart, which in MHO is an attractive quality in a vp candidate.
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