- Biden was head and shoulders over what I’d expected. He had a great debate.
- Palin was not embarrassing. But for the whole expectations game, she’d have been a clear loser. As it was, she was so-so.
- The upshot is that the VP debate won’t matter– Palin could have finished off McCain’s campaign if she’d performed here like she did with Katie Couric. She did better than that, and so we’re not far from where we were at 7:00 PM tonight– race unchanged. I think Palin will lose some votes for the ticket, and the VP pick will matter more than usually, but not as much as it might have. It will be interesting to see if the McCain people succeed at keeping Palin away from the press from here on.
- In the last bullet point, I’m reacting like an informed, opinionated observer. There is a real chance I have it wrong, and we’ll come out of this with the trend against McCain somehow continuing from the debate. I just don’t understand how undecideds think. I do not think there is much chance that this will be a turning point in McCain’s favor.
My ultimate VP debate reaction
October 3rd, 2008 @ 12:33 am - by NMC · 8 Comments
Filed Under: Herald & Examiner
My wife (not nearly the yellow dog that I am) thinks I’m being too even-handed here and masking the real fact of a substantial Biden win.
NMC: I think the key, as you stated, is in how the undecideds think and what they are looking for. I suspect some are looking for what Obama is selling but they would prefer to buy it from a white person. If that is the case, I am heartened that, at the very least, the decision is a real struggle for them.
As for the others-who knows. Like you, I see such contrast between McCain & Obama that it’s a no brainer. Hardline Repugs see it the same way. For the others-I just don’t know.
I do agree with your wife that Biden was the clear winner on debate points but I understand that what McCain folks were looking for-Palin to redeem herself-they got.
Sarah Palin picks up voters who think, “She’s like me.”. These voters don’t know the right answers to the questions either. In fact they don’t understand the questions. Therefore, they hear a question they don’t understand and hear her respond and think, “wow she’s smart.”
Joe Biden made a sexist out of Palin when he said, Dont think because Im a man I front know what it’s like to be a single parent. That spoke to many men and their mothers. The days of sexist dissing of dads as parents should be long gone. That was a HUGE blow against Palin well landed and well deserved. Like NMC, she should have acknowledged Biden’s journey. This “moms” this and “moms” that crap is sexist and wrong because what about the millions of dads that such thinking excludes.
The biggest favor Palin can do the Dems is to keep meming those talking points. When she does that, it’s like W in drag.
The worst thing Palin can do is be real and say, I don’t know the answer I am doing this that and the other to figure it out BUT my core beliefs on the subject are . . . .
If a candidate dared to get that real, we would all vote for them as long as their core beliefs lined up with ours.
confounded, the whole idea that one might “keep meming those talking points” is scary.
NMC @1 I think your wife it right (as they are 99% of the time )and gut feelings are sometimes wrong. That’s why I don’t bet. She was not and is not the attack dog McCain needed.
Like anybody cares, my debate reaction is: Why aren’t the two tickets Biden/Clinton and Thompson/Romney?
I see that 51% of the people CNN polled think Biden won. That IS NOT good news.
Sarah Palin, the backwoods rube from nowhere, went toe-to-toe and head-to-head with the Senator who has been serving in the Senate longer than anyone else, the Senator who is supposed to be the foreign policy expert (his idiotic plan to dismember Iraq notwithstanding).
If a former beauty pageant, TV broadcaster, moosehunter from nowhere can debate Biden essentially to a draw, then Americans did not like what they heard from Biden … or if they liked it, they didn’t believe him when he said it.
Meanwhile, after the debate I guess Biden went back to watching old videotapes of FDR’s 1929 television address to the nation, or may he was telling more war stories about his helicopter being forced down by enemy fire. Oh, wait, my bad. Democrat lying BS is okay. Sorry about that, I keep forgetting truth doesn’t matter much anymore.
Calm down, Observer. I was interested to see what you had to say.
I think Biden did a lot better than you imply. And you know as well as I do that any poll that comes down to “our ticket versus their ticket” is doomed to come really, really close to 50-50 by the state of the electorate.
The Progress Report from Center for American Progress has a take on Palin’s debate with the facts.