[IWE] VP Debate

[D. Scott Katzer]

Hi Jay,

Jay Mehaffey wrote:
> Well Palin didn't botch it, both sides where obviously well prepared. I 
> would give it to Biden by a few points, but there was no knock out or 
> even staggering here.

I thought Biden showed what a lightweight she is.

> The only clear cut win is that Palin is easier on the eyes then Biden. 
> Biden is starting to develop some weird lines around his eyes and is 
> looking old. There was something odd with the way Palin sometimes looked 
> happy and comfortably with something things but was awkward and 
> stuttering with others. It was like she was happy when she was on script 
> and unhappy when she was off script or having trouble remembering it. 
> Biden did have one effective bit though, whenever Palin went to direct 
> attack on Biden, Biden looked back at her and smiled in way that left 
> you with the impression he took it as a joke.

She seemed very mechanical to me.  Like a beauty queen or a TV 
announcer.  Hmm...  Beautiful smile, perfect sultry makeup.  She's not real.

> Palin did sound awkward talking about homosexual relations, but the 
> Biden/Obama and Palin/McCain position are close enough to be 
> indistinguisable, so this won't be a big campaign issue.

I heard her trying to finesse the issue.  She talked about her personal 
feelings, but it's clear to me that a McCain/Palin administration won't 
do anything to fix the laws that treat homosexual couples differently 
from heterosexual ones when it comes to medical issues, etc., but 
Obama/Biden would.  The uses the same construction in reverse on 
abortion - she wants everyone to think that she's just personally 
opposed to abortion when in fact she would use the power of the state to 
restrict access and ultimately abolish it if she had the chance.

> Biden did 
> better on the war in Iraq, probably his best sequence in the debate. 
> Biden's slam of Cheney was better then Palin's defense, but that was 
> just one short bit. In fact, I don't think there was any sequence where 
> Palin got the best of Biden, but Biden rarely got the best of Palin either.

I think that Biden did a great job of showing that the majority of 
Palin's talking points were lies and distortions.  I don't think that 
she was able to combat that.  For example, I thought Biden's comments on 
federal windfall profits taxes like she imposed in Alaska was perfect. 
She had no counter for that.  She also messed up Gen. McKiernan's name, 
which isn't a big deal except she tried to correct Biden about what 
McKiernan said about the surge - and got it wrong.

> Biden did better when they wandered from the prepared script, but Palin 
> was not stupid enough to do more then a quick distraction before 
> returning to the prepared plan. Biden was careful to avoid directly 
> attacking Palin, prefering to aim at McCain or the Bush administration 
> directly. Palin took shots at both, but aimed more at Obama then Biden. 
> Both dodged a few questions and went into a prepared script that 
> answered a different question, but neither did it badly enough that it 
> came across badly. I think Palin did it more, but that may just reflect 
> Biden's greater experience with doing it.

She often asked and answered her own questions rather than responding to 
Ifill.  I thought Biden did that far less often.  The stupid format that 
they decided to use made it difficult for any nuance to come out.

I don't think she ever gave any specifics in any of her responses.  A 
lot of what she said was gibberish - like when she was talking about how 
she somehow annulled the federal energy bill by having oil company taxes 
in Alaska, or something.

She seems to have no understanding of many issues.  Like why the US 
Embassy in Israel is not in Jerusalem.

Biden objectively won on substance.  I have no idea how the polls will 
regard it, though.  I see that Buchanan is already saying that she won, 
so the partisans will be spinning things like mad...

My $0.02.

> Jay

Cheers,
Scott.