Posted by Dave on 10/03/08 at 12:32:20 am
Categories: Campaign 2008

So I have been watching the rerun of the VP debate.

Gov. Palin does not sound nearly as clueless as she did in the interviews with Couric or Gibson. But she is clearly just spouting memorized lines. There is not one original thought from her. That is, in large part, why she will not respond to most of Biden's attacks of McCain, because she did not have a prepared line ready.

Some random thoughts:

• Palin: "Its so obvious that I am a Washington outsider... you supported McCain adamantly on Iraq."

  BULL. How does she lie so easily?

• Palin, on Biden's teacher wife: "God bless her, her reward is in heaven, right?"

  Huh? Seriously... huh? Is she trying to tell every teacher in the country to vote for Obama? Teachers do NOT want their reward to be in heaven. They want to be rewarded, with better pay, now.

• Palin said something about the Vice President possibly having a bigger role with teh Senate. Any idea what she is talking about?
• Biden starts to tear up when talking about the loss of his wife and child, and being a single parent. One of his best moments in the debate. He is strong, powerful, yet real and honest, showing his emotion. I like it.
• Now Palin is trying to talk about how McCain will be change to Washington. Huh? So the man who has very little difference with George W. Bush is now somehow going to bring change?
• How does having support from Romney, Guiliani, and other Republicans mean that he is a maverick>
• Speaking of which... Biden nails McCain on the maverick crap. Really, really good, and really, really true. McCain isn't a maverick on anything that real people care about every day.
• Palin: "No, there hasn't been something that I have had to compromise on." Oh. My. Did she really say that?

Final thoughts... the snap polls are coming in, and it is looking like Biden won fairly easily. That is not a surprise. Biden was good - somewhat bland, but good. He came across as very prepared, very knowledgeable, and very comfortable. Palin came across as nervous, rushed, and scripted.

Nate Silver, at FiveThirtyEight.com had a pretty interesting comment, and I think he is right:

To be completely frank if that were anyone other than Sarah Palin on stage, this would be regarded as a blowout at this point.

Palin bettered expectations, but she still was so clearly and so obviously the lesser candidate.

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