Thursday, October 02, 2008

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.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I somewhat agree with you about O’Reilly, but then no one ever accused him of being wise or sane. On the other hand, I think his “anger” does reflect the mood of main street. This also appears echoed among individuals polled in the post-debate period.

Palin was indeed a winner. Did she convince any dedicated socialists? No. Did she have an impact on independents? I believe she did.

Biden was interesting. I think he was a good man, but he is definitely a partisan. For example …. He repudiates Bush preemption policy, but favors interventionism. This is the problem Democrats have explaining their record to those of us who are paying attention.

A.C. McCloud said...

I thought she absolutely killed him on Iraq/Afghanistan, going so far as saying Obama was waving a white flag. That was her best part. And that's supposed to be Biden's expertise.

Funny you speak of partisanship, Palin made it a point to be "nice" to Joe through the debate.

Also, did you catch his two sighs?

Right Truth said...

A.C. I agree with you on O'Reilly. This should have been a slam dunk for O'Reilly if he had kept his cool. We have Franks own words, geesh.

On Palin, the Luntz group was remarkable. Never had such unanimous results as those for one candidate.

On Bush and the bailout:

I've been wondering the same thing. What was Bush thinking. Paulson came out and said that he has been concerned about this for some time. So what kept him quiet? Why wait until this could be used as an October surprise?

I'll tell you why. Because he is in the tank for the Democrats, Obama, and what better way to help them out that save this until now, make it a crisis that they could solve and look good in the media?

Apparently Bush is trusting Paulson. Big mistake.

LA Sunset said...

I only had obtained a grand total of three hours of sleep on Wednesday night, so I didn't make it to the debate. But I was able to see the O'Reilly interview with Frank.

Mr. O does have a tendency to come unglued at times, and at times, it seems like it is over some things that most of feel are not worth the 60-60 point increase in blood pressure. In spite of this, I must say that Bill's anger was justified. It thoroughly angers me when someone that has been caught dead to rights screwing something up and has the blatant audacity to lie about it.

I am not the least bit pleased that this bill had to be passed, I am not the least bit pleased that the Democrats are dodging responsibility in this fas paux, and I am certainly not pleased that John McCain signed onto one of the biggest scams that is being purported to be a necessary piece of legislation.

We have no leadership right now and we have no real choices.

A.C. McCloud said...

LA, agree OR has a right to be mad at that hack and his cronies for taking money from Frank Raines and Jim Johnson and pretending the whole thing was the fault of Reagan and Bush. Nancy Pelosi couldn't resist taking another shot at the GOP today (after bill passage) for causing this mess, wretched Botoxzilla that she is.

But OR doesn't do the cause any good by coming unglued IMHO. It turns sympathy to the devil where none is due. It becomes the story.

Just the other day I heard him say he learned important powers of persuasion while attending Harvard. Where were they? I'm trying to imagine Dennis Miller taking apart this poltroon and how different (and delicious) it could have been.

A.C. McCloud said...

Apparently Bush is trusting Paulson. Big mistake.

It troubles me that Bush could be completely taken. Surely he's got some financial guys advising him? I want to believe it's something more.
Or maybe hope is the better word.