Sarah Biden Debate Thread

Consider this a pre-debate tailgate party without the brewskies and bbq. By now everyone should have read Victor Davis Hansen's clever description of the differences in media coverage between the Veep candidates. So true. Funny how half the population shrugs their shoulders at Biden's past incompetence, as if because it's a known trait it's perfectly OK.

But Palin is still an unknown. Therefore she should receive a lion's share of the scrutiny right now, which McCain had to have known before picking her. Like others, I'm not 100 percent sold on Sarah yet. That's my bad if she wipes the floor with Biden tonight, and hopefully she will, but we ARE talking about a possible president here. Country first.

Points I'll be watching for--resilience under fire, character and vision, and the ability to think on the fly. If she can do all that with her natural charm the focus will switch to the naked guy on the other side of the stage. Or tomorrow's House vote, either or.

MORE 10/02/08

Not specific to the debate but just watched O'Reilly come unglued interviewing Barney Frank. Good Lord. Only O'Reilly could take a softball interview like that and foul it off into the stands, maiming an ice cream vendor. Frank came off looking more rational of the two, which acted to dissolve his complicity in the situation--even with a clear video showing him distorting the crisis. One channel over Dave Ramsey was calmly explaining the guilty parties in this mess, without one popped vein.

DEBATE 10/02/08

She really just kicked his arse all over the floor with her Iraq and Afghanistan comments. A loud sigh was heard when she mentioned general McClellan Mckiernan and Joe's flip floppiness on his Iraq war vote. Joe's comparing McCain to Cheney, but let's not forget Cheney:

SEN. BIDEN: Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them.

The weapons inspectors said he had them. He catalogued—they catalogued them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, catalogued. They looked at them and catalogued. What he did with them, who knows? The real mystery is, if he, if he didn’t have any of them left, why didn’t he say so? Well, a lot of people say if he had said that, he would’ve, you know, emboldened Iran and so on and so forth.

All in all, she's doing better than they expected. Maybe not winning, but better than Tina Fey. As Rove says, never underestimate the power of being underestimated.

SUMMARY 10/02/08

Biden won, but Palin won. She defeated Tina Fey, the MSM, and she cleaned his clock on foreign policy, which he's supposed to be the expert on.

Biden was more cogent on responding to the questions, he was relaxed, and he didn't say anything overly gaffish (except about NATO forces in Lebanon). But overall, his performance wasn't much different than his primary debates. There were no deer in the headlights moments, but there was a lot of dodging and repetition on her part. And nookular? Are you kidding me?!! But she came through.

MORE 10/02/08

The post-debate response has been interesting. Luntz had his focus group on Fox and I've never seen them so animated for any candidate. They really seemed to connect with her on a human level. Team McCain has to be thrilled. Now, anyone care to predict what will the top story be tomorrow?

MORE

I think she messed up the commanding general in Afghanistan's name, so notch one down on the arse kicking scale. But she still won that segment. It's corrected.