Palin vs. Biden Debate - Your thoughts...

[Bill Glasheen]

I've expressed some of my opinions on this elsewhere, but not all. I found this exchange fascinating in many dimensions. Before I express more of my views and we hear what the press has to say, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

- Bill

[AAAhmed46]

Well, Palin handled herself better then i thought she would.

They both seemed very very careful, i felt they both held back some punches. I was surprised.

Of course, my soarce is youtube, not live feed so i probably got edited clips.

[TSDguy]

I actually wasn't expecting the deer-in-headlights out of Palin for this. In interviews she was put in that position by the "moderator" repeating the questions she didn't answer. In the debate, it's ok if the candidate doesn't answer the question and talks about whatever they want. In many cases that was encouraged.

I think Biden pretty much ignored Palin, he quoted facts and didn't attack her too much. Palin's answers were obviously fluff... I think Biden was probably coached to not attack her and let her answers speak for themselves.

Both came off as out of touch with "Main Street" because they were trying so hard to prove that they were average joes. They were both that guy that insists he's a UFC warrior because he wears TapOut t-shirts.

I didn't see anything else worth mentioning, I doubt the debate changed anybody's mind about anything.

[tigereye]

Palin presented herself from the first moment as the 'girl next door'. She winked to the camera and peppered
her answers with anecdotes from her town Wasilla and with folks expressions as 'betcha'...and words similar to this.
People got the impression that she runs to become Miss America rather than vice president. It is not a beauty contest. Somebody should have told her.

If you consider that the immediate task for Palin is to prove that she would be
in state to follow the 72-years old John McCain as president, might be necessary through death or illness.
Than my answer is no, she is not the right person.

Especially in the first half of the debate, over economy and domestic affairs she avoided many questions,
ignored subject completely .
But after a number of disastrous media appearances last week she did her best to repaire part of the damage she made.

[Bill Glasheen]

From The Wall Street Journal.

Candidates Hit Their Marks

The vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden turned out to be a tug of war between opposites, pitting not just woman versus man, but outsider versus insider, freshness versus experience, and simplicity versus details.

And what voters took away from the encounter in St. Louis -- who they thought won or lost the encounter -- probably depended a great deal on what they expected coming into it.

Those who were eager to see Gov. Palin lapse into incoherence were disappointed; she didn't. Likewise, those who thought she would try to compete with Sen. Biden on his level of detail didn't see that either, for she decided to debate as a voice of old-fashioned common sense rather than a voice of deep knowledge.

Similarly, those who thought Sen. Biden would wander off into the rhetorical excesses, overstatements and verbal excesses for which he is sometimes prone were equally disappointed. He was, instead, disciplined and evenly modulated.

All told, it wasn't quite like any other debate in the history of such exercises. That's true largely because Gov. Palin isn't quite like any other candidate who has strode onto a national debate stage. Her experience, her style and the massive level of national curiosity about her broke all the molds, and left a nation uncertain what to expect.

What viewers got was a full dose of the aw-shucks, regular-folks Palin personality, with no effort to turn it into anything else. Within minutes, she had said "heck" and "darn," and referred to "Joe Six Pack." She declared herself and her husband, Todd, as card-carrying members of the middle class.



Sarah Palin

She also attacked Wall Street greed and corruption as lustily as any populist Democrat could do, clearly intent on showing she was carrying no water for her party's country-club wing.

Any bailout to rescue the nation's financial sector, she declared, needs to include "massive oversight" of Wall Street "that Americans are expecting and deserving."

And in what must surely rank as one of the more candid professions by a national political candidate, she simply declared that she wasn't going to worry too much about answering the questions she was asked, but would say what she wanted to say: "I may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let 'em know my track record also."

As if to underscore the point, she often stared into the camera, rather than looking at either the moderator, Gwen Ifill, who had just asked her a question, or at Sen. Biden to her right.

On substantive questions, she hit her marks without stumbling, coming back repeatedly to the virtues of tax cuts, and stressing also the need to drill for oil on more domestic lands, the dangers of setting a firm timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, and the wisdom of letting Americans buy their health insurance on the open market.

And it's doubtful that any other candidate has ever smiled so much or so readily while walking through paces. Even when she chastised Sen. Biden for likening drilling for oil offshore to "raping" the outer continental shelf, she did it with a smile.



Joseph Biden

Sen. Biden, son of a car salesman, did his best at times to match the down-home style of Gov. Palin, daughter of the hunting enthusiast school teacher. At one point he got in his own ode to the middle class, referring to his friend "Joey" and the trouble he is having affording a full tank of gas.

But by the time the debate wound around to foreign policy, Sen. Biden's real strength, he attempted to play out the encounter on his turf rather than Gov. Palin's. He reeled off critiques of Bush administration policies on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel, and proclaimed he saw no light between the administration and Sen. McCain on any of them.

He was unafraid to dive into detail in contrasting the Bush administration's level of spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, complaining that the struggle to keep terrorists from taking root in Afghanistan is suffering because Republican leaders have chosen to spend "more money in combat in Iraq in three weeks than in seven years in Afghanistan."

It was, in the end, what viewers might have expected from the man who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- much as what they got from Gov. Palin was what they were led to expect from her widely heralded speech to the Republican national convention just a few weeks ago. It was a fascinating byplay -- but not necessarily one that changed many minds.

- WSJ

[gmattson]

Gov. Palin will do just fine as VP. . . providing her "handlers" will give her the scripts to read or memorize before meetings. Actually, she mindlessly answered most questions, whether using the correct answers in her notebook or not.

Of course, she was quite willing to go off script when her confidence level rose and she felt like "winging" it.

I loved her "off script" answer regarding the role of a VP. She kept smiling and talking, not having the slightest idea what she was talking about.

The gov. is doing a great job in Alaska. . . for the sake of our country, I hope she gets to go home next month.

(BTW, I like her spunk, confidence and "in your face" attitude towards the corruption in the current administration. But she is not ready for the white house.)

[mhosea]

Well, Bill, Biden was articulate and well-prepared, as always, and he didn't really make any mistakes during the debate. I'm not a Biden fan, but I'd be more comfortable by far with Biden as the nominee and Obama as the VP. That's what I kept thinking about when Biden spoke, especially when he spoke about John McCain, his long-time colleague. I can understand why people are uncomfortable with the idea of Palin as president in the near term (say within the next couple of years), but what always seems to stop me in my tracks with that thought is the next thought--that Obama, other than being a slicker orator and better practiced at discussing the national issues (as opposed to dealing with them), is even less ready for the presidency.

[gmattson]

Remember all the "promises" our current president made during his debates??? They will say anything to get elected. McCain and Biden has been in the system so long they wouldn't know the truth if it bit them in the ass.

I wonder who is actually running our country right now! My fear is that these same "behind the scene scoundrels" will be helping McCain!

Hmm, do I sound pessimistic about the next four years????

[Bill Glasheen]

*** not ready for the white house.

What qualities do you think make a leader?

This really has gotten me thinking. Since I've gotten my doctorate, I've had 9 bosses. And you know what? My favorite was a really smart MD who was a Yale undegrad. However... my second favorite is my present boss, who heads my research department. She is not a researcher. She's not a PhD. She's not even super smart. But you know what? She does "blocking and tackling" for me. She leaves me alone to run my research teams, and helps do some behind-the-scenes work when I run into a team member who isn't quite with the program.

Ronnie Reagan was far from an intellectual. But he was a hell of a lot better leader than the smarter Jimmy Carter. He surrounded himself with good people, and let them execute his general vision. He said a lot of stupid things, but nothing "stuck" because the people liked him.

Why do the people of Alaska give Palin a higher approval rating than any other governor? What's up with that? Are we to assume that the recent run of good outcomes in that state is an accident? Given the urgent need for domestic energy so we can get our butts out of the Middle East, is putting Alaska on the immediate radar screen such a bad idea?

I wonder who is actually running our country right now! My fear is that these same "behind the scene scoundrels" will be helping McCain! Sad

Hmm, do I sound pessimistic about the next four years????

Well... truth be told, the president doesn't have THAT much effect on the course of either our government or our economy. So yea, a lot of other forces and factors come into play.

For instance... I saw this credit and real estate meltdown coming on long ago. I understood it both at a macro economic level and also witnessed some of the unseemly real estate buy/sell patterns out where I live. I'm not so sure the president could have stopped that train from wrecking. My thinking is that if anyone had control over this, it would have been the Federal Reserve. Interest rates got so low so quickly that the demand for housing far exceeded supply. This caused the "real estate bubble", and a bunch of nitwit green investors thought that trend would go on forever. Like the internet boom and the stock market bubble of the 1990s, it didn't. Duh! Only problem here is that people didn't just lose their portfolios. They're losing their homes. That hurts.

I have to say though... as callous as this sounds, I shed no tears for a lot of the idiots losing it in this economy. The "home flipping" was nonproductive economic activity, and I'm happy to see those speculators lose their shirts. This practice of buying more home than you needed just didn't make sense. Interest only loans? What's up with that? Even if someone will give you this stuff, I wouldn't touch it.

And again... I shed no tears for the loan institutions giving out or buying up big loans to homeowners whose houses were destined to lose value. Guess what happens to said homeowners when the amount they owe suddenly is more than the value of their home? Oops! But that could have been foreseen.

Is all this really the fault of a president? I doubt it.

Too bad we all get hurt when the economy suffers.

- Bill

[Stryke]

I have to say though... as callous as this sounds, I shed no tears for a lot of the idiots losing it in this economy. The "home flipping" was nonproductive economic activity, and I'm happy to see those speculators lose their shirts. This practice of buying more home than you needed just didn't make sense. Interest only loans? What's up with that? Even if someone will give you this stuff, I wouldn't touch it.

many mom and pop first time buyers are probably also on the street , property is supposed to be the holy grail , in fact asset rich is the only smart move long term , and you know what , the smart ones will still come out ok , what we have to feel for is the Joe average , who scraped to get into their first place . And guess who will be bailed out , thats right the big guys ......

the buisnesses that survive the credit crunch will be asset rich , and have good collateral . Property is always going to be the best way to do that .

the real issue here is productivity and global balance , the third world is devloping , the wealthier countrys are taking a rightfull adjustment .

theres paper wealth and real wealth .

and all the great economic theorists need to go back to basics (as you did when you saw this coming )

supply and demand , assets vs return .

[AAAhmed46]

Economics scares me, and makes me hide under the bed covers.

Freaking Stan and Rick bottomly will sit around talking about the economy, and i just don't know what the hell their talking about.

[TSDguy]

No one does. It's the great secret of the economy. Just pick some opinion and run with it, it's about as likely to come true as anything else.

[Jason Rees]

Palin did better than I expected. I too, would vote for a Biden/Obama ticket long before I would vote for an Obama/Biden one. McCain's ticket is set up the right way. Too bad McCain's on defense. The MSM helps Obama drive home the rediculous message that the Dems are the gods of the economy, so he can ride the wave into the White House. McCain needs to get back on the soap box, and hand this whole mess to a do-nothing Dem-controlled Congress.

[cxt]

IMO, Palin did better than was generally expected---her points were IMO better than Bidens--but not delivered as well.

Basically she needed a knock out and didn't get it---and when your fighting the champ (in this case with the lead the Obama/Biden ticket has they are the "champ") you got to knock him out....you don't beat the champ on points--you got to knock him out........ties and near ties go to the leader.

Maybe the next Obama/McCain will be better???

[TSDguy]

Biden gets a real hoot out of SNLs 'coverage' of the debate::

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5983382