Thoughts of the Debate!

Well, what did ya'll think?

Palin certainly has a unique debate style. I don't think I've ever seen *down home country girl* used as a debate tactic before. I admire how she pulled it off even though I wont be voting for her. The woman is learning, its just too bad she is staunchly opposed to some things that are very important to me.
Biden must have been using his kid gloves, he's done better then that before but I think he wanted to avoid looking like he was beating up on a helpless woman (which appalling is not!). I still award him the most points at the end of the night though.

I was mostly disappointed by whatever it was that had the moderator not redirecting attention back to the questions at hand, as was done repeatedly in the Presidential debate last week.

RE: Palin, the expectations of her performance were so low that she would have had to actually make some effort to actually fail. She's a liar, and her caricature of "simple folk" was downright insulting. If any of them actually buy that, they're stupider than I thought. I've spent plenty of time with my small-town family in West Virginia, and I can tell you they don't talk like GEE GOLLY SHUCKS DARN IT ALL DONCHA KNOW. And neither does she, if you check out her speeches from before she hit the national stage.

Biden pissed me off a few times, even if I can understand the political reasons he said what he said. FFS, it would be nice to see some people who have the backbone to stand up and say YES, GAY PEOPLE DESERVE ALL THE SAME RIGHTS AS THE REST OF US, PERIOD, END OF DISCUSSION. Otherwise, I think he walked the line he needed to walk quite well. He couldn't come off too harsh (as he would have a male opponent) because McCain et all would have jumped all over him picking on a poor little woman, but he couldn't just let her off on all of the whoppers that kept vomiting from her mouth.

The Last Unicorn wrote:

Palin certainly has a unique debate style. I don't think I've ever seen *down home country girl* used as a debate tactic before. I admire how she pulled it off even though I wont be voting for her.

I was surprised that that was her tactic as well but it doesn't seem to have done for her the things they were hoping it would. I read earlier today that of those "undecided" voters who watched the debate, a majority on two major network polls (CNN and ABC) awarded Biden with the most points and more of the "undecided" are leaning toward Obama/Biden after the debate than are leaning toward McSame/Palin. In fact, out of two "undecided" focus groups watching the debate, 11 are leaning more toward Obama/Biden and only 1 claimed they were leaning more toward McSame/Palin.

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The woman is learning, its just too bad she is staunchly opposed to some things that are very important to me.

What I thought was that she had been coached very well. The problem is that while Biden has lived foreign policy for the past 35 years and therefore internalized many of these arguments, Palin ended up sounding as though she had simply memorized republican talking points. She delieved them well enough but you could tell they weren't internalized yet. It's just too bad they won't be debating again. While I would never vote for McSame/Palin, I would like to see her debate again after she's had some more time and see if the same impressions occurred again. And while she definitely did better than people expected her to do, she still had massive problems in the debate.

I only counted a handful of questions that she ACTUALLY answered and what's more is that she told Ifill that she wouldn't be answering the questions from the moderator that she didn't like. Who is seriously allowed to go into a debate and refuse to answer the questions?! She sidestepped many questions in this fashion, choosing to talk about something (usually energy or "corporate greed on wall street") than answer the question and I think Biden should have called her out on it far more than he did. Her attempt to appear "cutsy" or "folksy" did not come across as I think she intended and her refusal to answer many questions did hurt her as well. And the biggest issue I had from her (and because she insisted that McCain feels the same way, McSame as well) is that they really do not want to be compared to Bush on a policy level. This is very telling to me along with the fact that she STILL cannot clearly articulate what, exactly, many of their policies would be should they be elected.

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Biden must have been using his kid gloves, he's done better then that before but I think he wanted to avoid looking like he was beating up on a helpless woman (which appalling is not!). I still award him the most points at the end of the night though.

Biden was coached to handle her in that way because they were afraid he would say something off-the-cuff that was inappropriate or that he would come off looking like a bully. I absolutely loved that he called her out on using the word Maverick, that he told her straight up that she isn't the only person who is raising children and finding it difficult, that, unlike Palin and McSame, his only investment for the future is his home, and that to expand the duties of the VP is unconstitutional. Palin may have tried to come off as hometown america but Biden really did succeed and above that his confidence and knowledge in foreign policy really were not to be beat.

The only thing I absolutely loathed was to hear the DEMOCRATIC candidate state that he is against equality for gay people. I expected it, especially since I've heard the same from Obama, but it's disconcerting nonetheless.

I was a little iffy on him being the VP with Obama but this debate has really given me a lot more confidence in supporting the Obama/Biden ticket.

Scorpi084 wrote:

I was mostly disappointed by whatever it was that had the moderator not redirecting attention back to the questions at hand, as was done repeatedly in the Presidential debate last week.

That was what the republicans wanted and then they used the fact that Ifill's unpublished book is about Obama and racial politics to try and push for a different moderator. They weren't successful with getting a different moderator but I do believe they were successful with having redirection limited because "she's an inexperienced debator."

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RE: Palin, the expectations of her performance were so low that she would have had to actually make some effort to actually fail. She's a liar, and her caricature of "simple folk" was downright insulting. If any of them actually buy that, they're stupider than I thought. I've spent plenty of time with my small-town family in West Virginia, and I can tell you they don't talk like GEE GOLLY SHUCKS DARN IT ALL DONCHA KNOW. And neither does she, if you check out her speeches from before she hit the national stage.

The good news is that they aren't buying it. While it hasn't backfired spectacularly (like I am holding my breath for), it did cause people to lose interest in what she was saying.

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Biden pissed me off a few times, even if I can understand the political reasons he said what he said. FFS, it would be nice to see some people who have the backbone to stand up and say YES, GAY PEOPLE DESERVE ALL THE SAME RIGHTS AS THE REST OF US, PERIOD, END OF DISCUSSION.

Agreed squared infinity.

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Otherwise, I think he walked the line he needed to walk quite well. He couldn't come off too harsh (as he would have a male opponent) because McCain et all would have jumped all over him picking on a poor little woman, but he couldn't just let her off on all of the whoppers that kept vomiting from her mouth.

I wish he had done it a little more as well.

She did not answer one question in the first 2/3 of the debate. She just recited talking points.

To each their own I am not changing my opinion to suit anyone else.

Slide show of Joe Biden's debate prep.

Heeheehee.

Also: the current edition of "If they IM'd" is Sarah Palin and Team McCain, and this is priceless:

GovHockeyMom: but I dominated last night! I gave us exactly what we needed from that debate
Schmidtstorm: yes of course. Traditionally the VP debate has always served 2 prove 2 the country that the VP can form a coherent sentence in her native tongue. U nailed it!!

RE: Palin, the expectations of her performance were so low that she would have had to actually make some effort to actually fail. She's a liar, and her caricature of "simple folk" was downright insulting.

Yes, exactly. IMO the elephants are trying to do the same refreshing-down-to-earth-normal-joe bullshit that they did with Bush. It doesn't work on her. She was clearly trying to be what they'd told her to be. She practically screamed "Look how cute I am!! I'm non-threatening and warm and suggly and oh so folksey!!" She clearly memorised lines and cutesy stories rather than memorising ACTUAL FUCKING FACTS AND KNOWLEDGE.

I really truly think it's outrageous that there's even a suggestion that this woman could one day BE IN CHARGE OF THE USA. It's absurd. It's not that I hate her views, I think she knows jack fucking shit about anything.

I think Biden sat back and watched her hang which was the right thing to do IMO. If he'd pushed her she wold have probably used this to her advantage and swathes of the press would have sympathised with her and portrayed him as a heartless man. Her cock ups and inability to answer the questions could have been put down to her being shaken by his behaviour but now it's clear that she's just not up to scratch.

Unfortunately some people seem to want a fake down to earth beauty queen as a VP and so this will have drawn them more to her but people who want someone genuine and KNOWLEDGEABLE will NOT have liked this. Although Dubya blew in every debate I've ever seen him and he still got in twice so hells knows.

Just for those who haven't seen it....

Phoenix wrote:

Just for those who haven't seen it....

MUAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA [takes breath] HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!1!!!1!!!!!1!!!

OMG, that is the funniest shit evah!!!

I saw that flow chart, and I think it's real!