Posted on 10/03/2008 5:15:48 AM PDT by SJackson
In the weeks preceding yesterday’s vice presidential debate, one might have been forgiven for suspecting a vast right-wing conspiracy to lower expectations for Sarah Palin. A platitude-filled interview with Katie Couric, spoofed on “Saturday Night Live” and lamented by unnamed but oft-quoted “top advisers to John McCain,” seemed to underscore the impression that the attractive Alaska governor was all style and no substance – and certainly no match for a Senate heavyweight like Joe Biden.
Palin did nothing to discourage such deflationary talk. For instance, she suggested that she was overmatched by the experienced Biden when she said that she’d been listening to his “speeches since I was in the second grade.” So pronounced did the underselling of Palin become that even the Obama campaign felt compelled to bolster the case for the really “terrific debater” who would “give a great performance next Thursday.”
Alas for the Obama camp, their spin was more precise. Time and again in their Thursday night debate, Palin not only stood her ground against Biden but, on issue after issue, outperformed her Democratic counterpart. This political pit-bull, it turns out, has bark and bite.
It didn’t hurt Palin that Biden seemed determined to rehearse the more dubious charges of the Obama campaign. Several times, Biden suggested that John McCain had pushed for a special tax break for oil companies like Exxon Mobil at the expense of tax relief for the middle class, a charge that first aired in an Obama TV ad earlier this summer. At the time, the non-partisan website PoltiFact.com, maintained by the St. Petersburg Times, demonstrated that it was a serious distortion of McCain’s support for a broad reduction in corporate taxes.
Palin went one better. Not only did she identify by name Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, but she went on to point out, accurately, that Obama himself had voted for the 2005 energy bill that granted tax breaks to oil companies, and contrasted it with her own much-publicized battles with oil companies in Alaska. (Palin was too nice to mention that Obama’s crusading against Exxon hasn’t prevented him from pocketing more than $30,000 from Exxon-Mobil employees.) A minor issue in the context of the wider debate, it nonetheless established straightaway that Palin not only understood the details of policy – something that her recent televised flops had given cause to doubt – but would not be bullied on politics.
And, indeed, she wasn’t. Take foreign policy. As the reigning chairman and longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden was thought to have a clear advantage on the subject. It was just one of the assumptions demolished in the course of the debate. When Biden tried to defend Obama’s record on the Iraq war, Palin countered with some inconvenient praise, noting that Biden had earlier “opposed the move [Obama] made to try to cut off funding for the troops and I respect you for that.”
Going on the attack, Palin then asked how Biden could defend Obama’s position “especially with your son in the National Guard.” The reference to Beau Biden, a captain in Delaware's National Guard, was particularly clever, coming as it did from Biden’s very own political playbook: During the primaries last August, Biden had scorned his Democratic opponents for voting against funding for the troops “to make a political point,” memorably adding that “there's no political point worth my son's life.” He couldn’t have imagined then how the line would come back to haunt him.
To shift the topic, Biden reached for a standard Democratic talking point. Iraq, he insisted, was a distraction from the real war on terror. Palin again gave no ground. Democrats’ claims to the contrary notwithstanding, she countered, Iraq is indeed a central front in the war on terror. “And as for who coined that central war on terror being in Iraq, it was General Petraeus and al Qaeda,” said Palin, amusingly pointing out that this was the “only thing that they're ever going to agree on.” Against Palin’s pointed outline of the stakes in Iraq, Biden’s promise to withdraw troops in adherence with a political timeline seemed especially out of touch. And although Palin did not raise the point directly, viewers were left to wonder: How would President Obama make good on his promises to defeat al-Qaeda when he and his running mate refuse to recognize Iraq as a key battleground in the war on terror?
Palin proved even more adept in pricking the Democratic ticket’s pretensions to bi-partisanship. When Biden suggested that an Obama presidency would end polarization in Washington, Palin noted that Obama cast some 96 percent of his votes “solely along party line.” As Biden strained to play the loyal surrogate, Palin not only called attention to McCain’s record of breaking with his own party, but proudly boasted that he “never asked me to check my opinions at the door.”
Biden had hardly burnished his bi-partisan credentials when he revealed that his great insight as a senator was to recognize that judicial nominees should not be evaluated on their service record or qualifications but on the basis of their political ideology, citing as a putative achievement his successful 1987 campaign to defeat the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork. Those who recall Biden’s role in misrepresenting the record of Judge Bork – a Yale law professor and a member of the prestigious Court of Appeals whose great failing was to be a judicial conservative – might wonder how it supports his pledge to usher in an era of post-partisanship.
The discrepancy was not lost on Palin. In one of her most effective lines of the evening, she rebuffed Biden’s partisan attempts to tie McCain to the Bush administration by observing that “for a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there's just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that's where you're going.” As with so many other times in the debate, Biden had no compelling answer.
Nor could the Washington veteran match Palin’s engaging presence, which ultimately turned the debate in her favor. Charming, gracious, and politically fluent, she deftly inserted populist references to “Main Streeters like me” and even forced a crack in Biden’s steely façade when she premised a rejoinder with a ringing, “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
Biden, by contrast, was stiff and hectoring, with his recurrent admonition – “Let me say that again” – calling to mind all the pompousness of the entrenched political class. One almost expected the Senator to address himself in the third person, which in fact he did, when he assured his interviewer, Gwen Ifill, that “no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden.” That is debatable. More certain is that Joe Biden has had better debates.
Presidential campaigns rarely hinge on political debates, and yesterday’s duel is unlikely to reverse this history. It does, however, confirm a point that until yesterday seemed increasingly uncertain. If John McCain loses the election, it won’t be because of Sarah Palin.
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Switch the ticket! I want it to be Palin/McCain (if we have to keep McCain.)
Even my Democrat wife was impressed enough with Palin last night to now vote for McCain. She actually wishes Palin were at the top of the ticket.
Memo to McCain campaign:
STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT!
TURN GOV. PALIN LOOSE!
CRY HAVOC!!! AND LET SLIP THE “PITBULLS” OF WAR!!
(With apologies to Shakespeare...)
Totally agree. Unless those guys have been deliberately keeping Palin under wraps until after the debate, they had better now unleash her to wreak havoc!!
Biden didn't know what hit him. And he was totally caught flat footed on the Vice-President question. Everyone made fun of Palin when she said 5 weeks ago that she didn't know what a Vice-President does. I wonder if anyone noticed that Biden has no clue that the Constitutional powers of the VP are legislative and not executive.
Sarah put a fork in him at that moment and he didn't even know it.
Don't we all?
I would love to see her as POTUS. I wonder what her platform would look like without the suffocating blanket of McCain’s moderate views.
You and pretty much everyone else.
But it had to be this way. She avoided the drudgery of the primaries and still gets slammed onto the national scene.
I am glad it worked out like it did.
Thanks. My humble evaluation: Biden came through as an angry person,very angry, and at times out of control. His repeated snarls, sneers, and twisted facial gestures mimicked what you might expect to witness at the local zoo. Our animal friends should take offense. But way beyond his inflamed and offensive facial signals were his bald face multiple lies. No head piece could cover this up. I really hope somebody will detail his wayward statements with a basic fact check and post it for all to see. Wishful thinking perhaps. Anyway, the Dem fancy foot work dissolved last night in the wake of Sarah’s honest, down home response to a senator overtaken by frequent and overt manipulation of facts. This Obama Biden ticket was unmasked in this debate as the ticket from hell.
If Sarah was at the top of the ticket Obama would be down by ten in the polls.
She’s so refreshing.
“Everyone made fun of Palin when she said 5 weeks ago that she didn’t know what a Vice-President does. I wonder if anyone noticed that Biden has no clue that the Constitutional powers of the VP are legislative and not executive.”
I noticed that, too. I also noticed something else re the VP discussion. Here’s what I posted on another thread:
I haven’t read all of the posts on every thread and/or every article, so maybe someone else has mentioned it - I’ve just not seen it so far. One thing I heard/noticed is when Gwen asked about what the role of the VP would be in the respective administrations.
It seems to me that Sarah and John are both comfortable w John’s capabilities to be Pres and Sarah to manage certain initiatives. However, Joe mentioned he would be the point person for legislative issues (as he ‘has a history of getting things done in the Senate’)but he was going to be by 0bama’s side and ‘help him govern’.
My take on this is that neither Plugs or 0bama feels comfortable in 0bama’s to make a decision or govern, so he needs daddy by his side to help make decisions. And, that either Joe doesn’t feel comfortable in his ability to manage particular initiatives, or, again, doesn’t think that 0bama has the ability to make major decisions on his own, so, doesn’t want to tie his (Biden’s) time up managing his own projects.
IIRC during the 2000 election and after, the DBM was making fun of W, saying that he only picked Cheney because Cheney had the experience and ‘gravitas’ and it was really Cheney that was going to be making all of the decisions (insinuating that W was too dumb to). Seems to me that Biden indicated that’s exactly what he would be doing for 0bama, but, of course, the MSM isn’t going to say Barack is too dumb and/or doesn’t have enough experience and needs Joey. Perhaps I missed something and/or am being too critical. Or, perhaps another co-presidency?
I searched the transcript of the debate to make sure I got the language correct:
Sarah: “John McCain and I have had good conversations about where I would lead with his agenda. That is energy independence in America and reform of government over all, and then working with families of children with special needs. That’s near and dear to my heart also. In those arenas, John McCain has already tapped me and said, that’s where I want you, I want you to lead. I said, I can’t wait to get and there go to work with you.”
Joe: “Let me tell you what Barack asked me to do. I have a history of getting things done in the United States Senate. John McCain would acknowledge that. My record shows that on controversial issues. I would be the point person for the legislative initiatives in the United States Congress for our administration. I would also, when asked if I wanted a portfolio, my response was, no. But Barack Obama indicated to me he wanted me with him to help him govern. So every major decision he’ll be making, I’ll be sitting in the room to give my best advice. He’s president, not me, I’ll give my best advice.”
Read My Lipstick
Biden wore cosmetic tape. Notice those two beige streaks on the side of his temples. It was used to give him a temporary eye lift but stretched his eyes to slits almost and made him look grotesque:
Sounds exactly what happens with the current President and Vice President. The press has in the past had a field day with this no doubt if Obama gets elected this will either never be mentioned or be praised. Lets hope in some way even if the press does not relise it that Dick Cheney gets the credit for changing the Vice Presidency and making it a proper job.
Wow. What a fine picture of Sarah.
She’s wearing Dorothy’s Ruby slippers.
I think Biden was charmed by her. He couldn’t help himself.
Katie Couric probably spent the night with her head in the toilet. All her hard work to destroy this woman has been erased from the first words, “Hey, can I call you Joe?”
I LOVE THIS WOMAN!
You’re absolutely right — I also thought that old Joe made it sound as if he was planning to be there to mentor Obama and that should make us all feel more comfortable. A really telling statement about what many Democrats think of Obama but won’t say.
She is not only the best weapon in the McCain arsenal, she's the ONLY weapon.
Its time to go "nucular" with the Sarah Bomb.
LOL... I was just thinking the same thing.
There’s going to be a different McCain on Tuesday night between McCain and Obama.
As everyone says, Obama is more the economic expert. It’s not McCain’s cup of tea. His only hope is to go on the attack.
I want to see the McCain who delivered the last 5 minutes of his Convention speak.
Bump! It will be because of his going along with the Bailout.
You could be right. Within days he needs to produce that list of pork producers, and subject them to public scrutiny and embarassment as he's promised to do as President. And explain that as a Senator the cost was something he had to swallow, but that as President he'd have displayed the leadership necessary to mould a more effective bill.
"May I call you Joe?"
She very well could be 2012.
1. The economic benefits to families of a Palin McCain Administration
2. The economic detriments to families of a Biden Obama Administration
Agreed. Sarah should be bought time all over. Get her on the air and keep her on the air.
There should be some negative commercials against Obama, but not general "he is not ready to lead" stuff. No one cares.
It should be "this is what Obama will cost you, in concrete terms, and how his values are the opposite of yours".
I’ve hated that “Not ready to lead” tagline from the start. The implication is that his dreadful policies aren’t enough to disqualify him from your consideration, it’s just that at 46 he’s not quite the right age—as opposed to our 72-year-old candidate!
She made some good points but someone needs to work with her grammar.
McCain needs to offer concrete numbers and policies in down home terms that real Americans can relate to and say "I want that! I'm voting for McCain!"
Perhaps he needed to wait to go on the offensive until something “bipartisan” was passed. I am hoping this means he is ready to get out the big stick and whack Obama around like a pinata.
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