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“Candygram for Sarah!” That supersized box of chocolates – oh, and roses, too? – in Governor Palin’s dressing room just arrived courtesy of Gwen Ifill. What book on Obama? Because the great whooshing sound you heard was the air being sucked out of any other issue in the presidential race by the supernova that is the GOP veep nominee. As the First Hockey Mom might have put it, didya notice the helpless grin that kept appearing on Joe Biden’s face? Hmmm. I’d seen that telltale look before. Oh, yeah. 1984. When Fritz Mondale was watching his presidential ambitions being knocked...

A careful reading of the questions Gwen Ifill asked during the VP debate reveals several that displayed her bias. The revelation that PBS's Gwen Ifill plans to release a book on Barack Obama on Inauguration Day raised the suspicion that her moderator role at the VP debate might be other than objective. It was. The evidence of her bias is evident in several of her questions to the candidates. Below are a few examples. The Forced-Choice Question The forced-choice question aims to force an answer from a choice of options defined by the interviewer. For example, in the early stages...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin clearly and convincingly won last Thursday night's vice presidential forum with U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. How do we know? Because the next morning most of the liberal talking heads were dismissing the event and, indeed, the vice presidency itself as of no consequence. Had Gov. Palin been anything less than stellar, these same windbags would be, as they were before the event, emphasizing how absolutely vital is the veep's role and how crucial it was for Palin to excel. The fact that she did excel is extraordinary, given the extremely immense pressure that she...

HILLARY CLINTON, Barack Obama’s defeated opponent in the Democratic primary, has infuriated his supporters by praising Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, for her performance in last week’s television debate. “It is amazing, you know, she’s been thrust in the spotlight with very little national preparation and I think, all things considered, you saw a very composed and effective debater,” Clinton said. Her husband Bill recently issued some compliments of his own. “I come from Arkansas, I get why she’s hot out there,” he said. Her husband’s lukewarm endorsement of Obama was parodied on Saturday Night Live, the satirical show...

Cool video here.

In Thursday's vice presidential debate, Joe Biden changed his tune on John McCain's health care plan - but he's still singing off-key. The centerpiece of McCain's plan is to alter the tax breaks the federal government grants those who purchase health insurance. Currently, every dollar your employer spends on health benefits avoids federal payroll and income taxes. If you don't have job-based coverage, you generally get nothing. McCain proposes to eliminate that inequitable tax break and replace it with a universal tax credit. Every individual would get a flat $2,500 tax break, while families would get $5,000, no matter where...

Does anyone think Governor Sarah Palin is not a force in this year’s presidential race? Here’s something for folks to consider when looking at the political landscape and the polls. The usually ignored VP debate drew a historic audience - jumping into first place for any VP debate and into 2nd place for all Presidential debates: Update: Looking at the per network totals at Drudge I noticed PBS and C-SPAN may not be included in the tally, so this could be the all time record breaker! Updated: PBS ads another 3.5 million viewers, making this debate number one even over...

Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin squared off Thursday night in the only vice presidential debate of the 2008 campaign. Ratings were expected to be strong.

A snapshot of Intrade prices for various contracts was taken before and after the debate. It showed a mixed bag at the time. However, the CEO of Intrade has posted that there was a blatant market manipulation attempt to boost Obama's price. As a result of adjustments, what was a murky vision is now clear: Palin won big. This debate was unique at Intrade because there was a contract to trade based upon Intrade prices resulting after the debate. It was based upon my suggestion sent in to Intrade. ________________________________________________ 04/10/2008 02:04:27 Subject: Re:New Intrade VP Debate Contracts ko Director...

Election '08: It's hard choosing the worst in last Thursday's vice presidential debate: Sen. Joe Biden's continual untruths, his certitude in delivering them, or the free pass he got all night long. In "The Prince of Darkness," his memoir_of 50 years as a reporter in Washington, Robert Novak points out that while Jimmy Carter successfully ran for president by acting as "the anti-Washington, anti-government, anti-lawyer candidate telling audiences, 'I'll never lie to you' and setting post-Watergate standards of honesty," behind the smile Carter was actually "a habitual liar who modified the truth to suit his purposes." But neither Carter nor...

On Thursday night, Sarah Palin showed that she has the "right stuff" to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. Under fire for rambling answers in recent television interviews, Palin went into last night's debate the underdog against the sharp-tongued Joe Biden. But Palin, in style and substance, demonstrated she can hold her own on the national stage. Pollster Frank Luntz's focus group on Fox News watched the St. Louis debate. The group was evenly divided between Kerry and Bush supporters from the 2004 election. After the debate Luntz asked if she won, and his group almost unanimously said she...

It turns out that Katie's Restaurant closed down fifteen years ago. Talk radio host Curtis Sliwa of WABC dug this information up. He also got puzzled reactions from Wilmington Home Depots asking if anyone had ever sighted Biden.

Okay, folks. Let's keep an eye on this debate and see if Sarah can beat down hairplug.

Sarah Palin strode onto the stage, cheeky from the start. "Can I call you Joe?" The normally voluble Joe Biden seemed restrained by comparison as Palin made her play for the working-class, Joe Sixpack voters that have been his bread and butter as a politician. She's short on facts, but she has command of phrases ("We're mavericks!") and she strings them together with good effect. Biden looked on with a mixture of awe and horror as she did her every-woman show, winking at the camera, celebrating hockey moms and giving a shout-out to her brother's third-grade class. She succeeded in...

ThinkProgress and other liberal entities analyzed the tape from last night's vice presidential debate and seem to believe that Gov. Sarah Palin brought a sheaf of talking points to her lectern and simply read them. That's not what happened. Debate rules prohibited candidates from bringing any pre-prepared material with them. Only blank paper and writing utensils were provided. So to the extent that Palin seemed to be reading, it was because she had, during the course of the debate or during Joe Biden's answers, written down some notes. Clearly, she had memorized talking points and wrote them down when she...

Now this analysis will come at you in a very Stephen Colbert - like fashion...go with on this. 1) She's got great legs. Certainly better than that of Joe Biden's. I'm not going to lie, I have not yet seen Joe Biden's legs, but I'm pretty sure Palin's are better. 2) Both Vice-Presidential Candidates decided to go with their "YAY America" style by sporting an American Lapel Pin. Evidently, someone from Camp Obama let Biden in on a little secret: "America doesn't like it when you say paying taxes is patriotic, here just put this on instead!" Here is where...

Below, you’ll find a list of 14 “lies” Biden told last night, distributed by the McCain campaign. I’d just note two observations: first, when you tell stories of things that didn’t happen with the frequency of Joe Biden, coupled with his fervent belief of these untrue and inaccurate statements, I don’t think “lie” is the appropriate term. “Hallucinations” seems more accurate, I think. Second, they missed a bunch, so Biden’s list of li- er, hallucinations is well beyond 14. THE CONSTITUTION: Biden: "Vice President Cheney's been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. He has —...

That’s right—not only did Biden confuse the West Bank and Gaza, he blatantly lied when he said that Barack Obama did not support the Palestinian elections that put Hamas in control of Gaza. During His 2006 Trip To The Middle East, Obama Met With Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas And Said The Election Represented An “Opportunity...To Consolidate Behind A Single Government.” “Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s journey to the Middle East took him to the West Bank Thursday for a meeting with the man elected to replace Yasser Arafat. ... For a time Thursday in the West Bank there was only...

The famed "Violence Against Women" Act, which Biden cited 1 million times was declared unconstitutional. Good work, Joe. Why did Biden claim someone was accusing him of not knowing what it's like to be a single mother and then start crying? No one said that. Did Biden really need to tell us that the assassination of a U.S. president would be a "national tragedy of historic proportions"? Does he get points for correctly identifying a national tragedy"? Our beauteous Sarah nailed Biden on their plan to raise taxes, nailed Biden on voting against the surge, nailed Biden on not taking...

Sarah Palin roared into her rally here tonight — after her first and only Vice-Presidential debate — aboard the Straight Talk Express that literally drove into the arena. She hopped out flanked by her family: parents Chuck and Sally Heath, Todd, Willow, Piper, and baby Trig and dove into the crowd greeting several thousand supporters at the Chaifetz Arena at St. Louis University. Palin — clearly buoyed from her debate performance — told the screaming supporters that she was talking for them at tonight’s head to head with Joe Biden, “That was quite the debate we had here tonight and...

After the vice presidential debate Chris Matthews criticized Sarah Palin for, of all things, looking into the camera because it made her look like a "dolt." In fact, the "Hardball," host took several stylistic shots at Palin that implied the Alaska Governor wasn't very intelligent. Audio here When guest panelist Roger Simon noted Palin looked directly into the camera, Matthews observed: You know what I think of people when they come on "Hardball," and they look at the camera, I think they're dolts. In addition to the "dolt," remark Matthews viewed Palin's performance as "so reciting," and "automatic," "like a...

ST. LOUIS - Sarah Palin used folksy language, winks, smiles and sharp elbows to try to put seasoned rival Joe Biden on the defensive in last night's vice-presidential debate. "It's so obvious that I'm a Washington outsider and I'm someone who's just not used to the way you guys operate," Palin said after Biden answered a question about Iraq. "You voted for the war and now you're against the war," she said. "Americans are craving that straight talk. If you voted for it, tell us why you voted for it." Biden called GOP presidential candidate John McCain the "odd man...

ST. LOUIS — Sarah Palin was supposed to fall off the stage at her vice presidential debate Thursday evening. Instead, she ended up dominating it. She not only kept Joe Biden on the defensive for much of the debate, she not only repeatedly attacked Barack Obama, but she looked like she was enjoying herself while doing it. She smiled. She faced the camera. She was warm. She was human. Gosh and golly, she even dropped a bunch of g’s. “John McCain doesn’t tell one thing to one group and somethin’ else to another,” she said. “Those huge tax breaks aren’t...

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 2 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spent much of the past two weeks on the defensive, hounded by critics over halting performances in television interviews and questioned even by conservative writers doubtful about whether she is ready to be vice president. But the Palin who showed up for Thursday's debate against Democratic Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. was anything but defensive. In a fast-paced exchange about a range of domestic and foreign policy issues, she was the aggressive campaigner who in the first weeks of her candidacy had so energized the Republican faithful.

Jonah Goldberg: What struck me the most about the debate – and it probably helped having quintessential Obamaphiles in the room – was how Biden’s “gravitas” is derived almost entirely from the fact that he can lie with absolute passion and conviction. He just plain made stuff up tonight. I read a long list tonight in my debate with Beinart here at Wash U, we can visit the details tomorrow. Just a few: Flatly asserting that Obama never said he’d meet with Achmenijad; that absolute nonsense about spending more in a month in Iraq than we’ve spent in Afghanistan (“let...

Here is video from last night of a Frank Luntz focus group following the Vice-Presidential Debate. Most of the group believed Sarah Palin had won the debate. . . . . (Watch Video)

Biden had a lot of facts wrong, starting with his Constitutional citation (didn't he learn anything while bullying all those Supreme Court nominees?). He didn't tell the truth when he said Obama never offered to sit down unconditionally with Ahmadinejad, he fibbed about the clean coal line, and Palin, not Biden had the gist of Gen. McKiernan's comments on Afghanistan. But those weren't the real problem. The real issue is that Joe Biden talked, acted, and performed like a guy who has been a senator for 36 years. Palin didn't. And right now Americans hate just about everyone in Washington.

Thursday’s Vice Presidential debate was a winner for the Republican ticket. Depending on your barometer, Governor Sarah Palin may or may not have hit a home run tonight – I say she smacked a two-run triple into the gap – but she unquestionably came up huge, foiling (and probably disappointing) her tongue-watering critics, standing her ground admirably, going toe-to-toe with the time-worn, grizzled sigh-master, Senator Joe Biden. It wasn’t a performance for the ages in the classic sense, but it was one of the most personable and likeable performances I have ever seen in a debate – and it will...

I'm just leaving Chaifetz Arena on the campus of St. Louis University - what a night! After some pre-debate entertainment, thousands of GOPers settled in to watch Palin destroy Biden on several big screens. After the convincing win, Gov. Palin came by to deliver a speech, along with her family. They were on "The Straight Talk Express," and the bus literally pulled into the arena, some 30 feet from the stage. We were promised a big entrance, and she certainly didn't disappoint! At one point during the speech, some members of a group with a pink banner - presumably Code...

Who would have thought that the Vice Presidential debate would have been the most entertaining and civil of this election cycle. Joe Biden threw the first firebomb of the debate on the second question asked. ... Palin parried with the ease she failed to show when chatting with Katie ... ... Palin exposed the foolishness of some home buyers who purchased houses and chose mortgages that were way beyond their means. Biden countered claiming that a lack of government regulation was the cause. This tiny tit for tat clearly demarked their political philosophies — the divide between individual responsibility and...

I watched the Fox News version of the debate again, and you could hear the chatter after the debate was over. Palin went over to Gwen first to greet her, and Gwen asks, "Now that wasn't hard was it?" Palin responded, "Not at all." and walked away. Then Biden walked over and Gwen said, "You did a very very good job." The condescension was sickening.

(image from NHK National News, Japan) I have to say I am rather surprised. Normally liberal, mainstream Japanese press, is in fact really giving a good amount of credit in various top news headlines (at least) to Gov. Sarah Palin and her performance Thursday night (it is Friday afternoon here).I scanned the major Japanese news wires, like JIJI and Kyodo, and TV as well as online newspapers, such as Yomiuri, Nikkei, etc. Things like this appear:JIJI PRESS (wire services similiar to AP) in Japan. Breaking top story: ペイリン��終始攻勢�難関乗り切る�首長経験強調��イデン�挑発も�大統領� "Peirin shi, shushikouseide nankan norikiru = shuchou keiken kyouchou, baiden mo...

First, I would like to see all the Sarah doubters and detractors in the Beltway/Manhattan corridor eat their words. Eat them. Sarah Palin is the real deal. Five weeks on the campaign trail, thrust onto the national stage, she rocked tonight’s debate. She was warm, fresh, funny, confident, energetic, personable, relentless, and on message. She roasted Obama’s flip-flops on the surge and tea-with-dictators declarations, dinged Biden’s bash-Bush rhetoric, challenged the blame-America defeatism of the Left, and exuded the sunny optimism that energized the base in the first place. McCain has not done many things right. But Sarah Palin proved tonight...

"She killed."

Palin 83,971 Biden 28,232 Neither 2,201

Much like John McCain and Sarah Palin's view on ANWR, Russ and I will just have to agree to disagree on the outcome of tonights debate. I happen to think that Sarah Palin stood her ground and showed Biden how things should be handled. Biden came off as condescending, and ill informed in his often self congratulating rhetoric. Constantly, we were reminded of his fantastic record and reputation in Congress, on both sides of the aisle. Biden, C'mon! If you were the great statesman you tried to convince America of tonight, perhaps you would have carried, oh I don't know,...

It was posted on Democratic underground.. It needs love!!!! It is a libertarian website http://www.politicallore.com/category/featured

As I noted below, whether Ifill betrays a bias in favor of Obama/Biden tonight is somewhat beside the point. I'll bet that it will be hard to detect any bias in the questions she asks or the manner in which she asks them. And that's precisely why her evident conflict of interest is so insidious. It's more often the questions that aren't asked that betray bias and unfairness. Consider: I'd wager that if a poll had been conducted one year ago asking likely voters whether a candidate who had a working relationship with an unrepentant former terrorist had even the...

Just over one-third of voters (34%) say tonight’s vice presidential debate is Very Important to how they will vote, and over half (54%) view Joseph Biden as the more skilled debater, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Vice-Presidential Debate Moderator Gwen Ifill questioned whether Sarah Palin could balance being Vice-President with being a Mom only a few days after Palin's selection as John McCain's running mate. Ifill asked her guest if Palin had been "fully vetted," as if there was no way she could have been since she was chosen. It is beyond belief that this person will moderate the debate, given her clear bias against Palin and her vested financial interest in seeing Barack Obama win the election since she has a pro-Obama book slated for release on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009. . . ....

Not a happy camper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zafLsAtp_Q

202-872-1020 CALL! Ring the phones!!!! Do NOT allow this biased woman to moderate the Vice Presidential debate!!! 202-872-1020

"--- On October 2, 2008, she will moderate the first Vice-Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin at Washington University in St. Louis. On January 20, 2009, her new book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama will be released. ---" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Ifill#Bibliography **Something ain't right about that.**

Anchorage, Alaska - When he faces off against Sarah Palin Thursday night, Joe Biden will have his hands full. I should know. I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do. On paper, of course, the debate appears to be a mismatch. In 2000, Palin was the mayor of an Alaskan town of 5,500 people, while Biden was serving his 28th year as a United...

At Debate, Biden Told: Ignore Palin By RUSSELL BERMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | September 29, 2008 http://www.nysun.com/national/at-debate-biden-told-ignore-palin/86746/ As Senator Biden prepares to face off against Governor Palin on Thursday night in the campaign's lone vice presidential debate, Democratic strategists have a few words of advice for the lawmaker of Delaware: Ignore the Alaskan. Mr. Biden's 35 years in the Senate dwarf Ms. Palin's single month of experience on the national stage, but Democrats are worried that his penchant for verbal missteps and his occasionally aggressive style could be a liability as he faces only the second woman to...

In case you didn't notice, there is a concerted war on serious biblical faith in our post-Christian society. And that's why, any day now, you can expect Sarah Palin to be asked a question designed to knock her right out of the race for the vice presidency. It won't be a question about the Bush Doctrine. It won't be a question about her teenage daughter. It won't be a question about Alaska state troopers. It won't even be a question about abortion. None of those questions threaten to deliver a killer blow to her bid to be the first woman...

Senator Joe Biden is spending between three to four hours a day prepping for his debate with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, with that time to be increased over the next two weeks. According to campaign insiders, at least ten to 15 outside volunteers -- beyond those already working on the campaign -- are assisting in both Biden's and Obama's debate prep. Debate prep for both John McCain and Palin hasn't been made public, though it is known that Palin is putting in study time for her October 2nd debate in St. Louis.

I would like to share a story on Senator Joe Biden that happened 27 years ago. It involved his international humiliation of a good man, and it became a habit for Biden. I’m confident Biden will repeat the performance with Sarah Palin, perhaps during their first vice-presidential debate on October 2 at Washington University in St. Louis.

The title of this article could very well be: Trial lawyer debates senior executive and comes off looking lost and befuddled. For the first time, Senator John Edwards met Vice President Dick Cheney. One would think that since Edwards has been a senator for a few years he might have, at some point, met the President of the Senate, Vice President Cheney. However, John Edwards, like John Kerry, isn't very good about showing up for work. Therefore, even though they were in the Senate together for the last four years, the two men had only met in passing. Actually, Cheney...

At least 43.6 million people watched the debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards on Tuesday, an unexpectedly large audience that nearly matched that of the first presidential debate in 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore, according to Nielsen Media Research data released Wednesday. That debate was watched by at least 46.6 million people. The 2000 vice-presidential debate, between Mr. Cheney and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, was watched by 29 million. Tuesday night's debate was the most-watched vice-presidential face-off since the three-way debate with Mr. Gore, Dan Quayle and James B. Stockdale, Ross Perot's running...