Organizing for America | Patty Craven's Blog: Biden v. Palin

Biden v. Palin - Post-Debate comments

By Patty in Colorado - Oct 2nd, 2008 at 11:44 pm EDT

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Tags: biden, debate, palin

What we saw tonight was not what I or many others expected from Biden or Palin. If I had bet money on Biden losing it, and being unable to resist going after Palin, I would've lost bigtime! I'm happy to admit that, because it gives me a sense of peace of mind, that Biden really can reel it in when he has to.

After the debate, I am left with the feeling that Biden spoke from experience, heart and soul, passion, knowledge, and authority. There is no getting around the reality that Palin, no matter how personable and informed she was, spoke from a list of answers, which had been drilled into her head for the last three weeks.

On the technical aspects of the format and conduct of the debate, it seemed that the procedure of asking each candidate a question at the same time, and then giving them each time to respond and rebutt, basically had the effect of confusing the issues, to a certain extent. Answers were sometimes delivered in a disorganized way. There were quite a few times that both Biden and Palin had to backtrack to a part of a question and then go forward again later to answer the question completely.

Even as the political nerd I am, I admit to getting lost (and bored) by all of the Palin rambles and Biden droning. The time limits imposed on the candidates meant that they had to talk relatively fast. It was easy to miss the points made by the candidates, due to the difficulty in listening to a stream of words and details delivered quickly.

Since neither one of them actually dredged up things from the depths of the bucket of negatives available to them (about each other and their running mates), and both chose not to do any heavy attacks on each other, the debate remained civil in tone. There was no talk of TrooperGate, Rove v. Wade and fees for rape kits, lobbyists, national debt, medical records, GITMO, or torture, for example.

My own opinion about that is that both of them missed opportunities to confront each other about those seriously significant issues that actually do have an impact on the campaign. We have seen through the Bush Administration, that the Chief Executive and the Vice-President can wield tremendous power by exercising their ideologies through the executive branch.

Instead, both candidates kept returning the focus to their running mates.
Biden's emphasis was on the similarities between Bush, Cheney, McCain, and Palin. Palin's emphasis was on the capability of McCain to lead the country and how connected she thinks the McCain-Palin ticket is to the average population.

What the general public is left with is most likely the feeling that both candidates performed well, and probably fulfilled the expectations of their respective campaigns.

However, when the fact checkers zero in on what they actually said, there is bound to be significant fallout in the McCain campaign. Palin's twists on actual positions on specific issues (such as foreign affairs, gay rights, McCain's voting record, and taxes) no doubt has caused some yet to be heard dissent among McCain's supporters.

The task is still left to the presidential candidates to make their individual case to the American people. I don't think either candidate did any damage to their running mates. Time will tell how much they helped Obama and McCain.

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