I did not find the debate quite as boring as yall but I really enjoy politics (probably too much). There were some moments that were dry enough to make me want to go to the kitchen for an adult beverage (or a refill) which I did...not out of earshot though. And, yes, I am biased but I'll try to be as objective as possible.
My first observation is "where was this Sarah Palin during the Couric and Gibson interviews"? Obviously the interviews were edited but even taking that into consideration she seemed a little stiff and somewhere between flustered, guarded, and anxious in responding to some of the questions. That was not the Sarah Palin that appeared in the debate last night. She was funny, warm, engaging, disarming, and friendly but confident. She started just a little bumpy but I thought that she did a really decent job in the debate. Her disarming approach to meeting Joe Biden I think caught him (and me) off-guard...the audio on Fox News after the introduction caught her saying to Joe Biden: "Hey, can I call you Joe?"
About a third of the way through the debate I really think that she effectively took control by saying something to the effect of "...look, I may not answer these questions the way you like or want...I'm going to speak directly to the people and talk about what they think is important" (I am paraphrasing her.) To me she seemed in control after this despite Gwen Ifill not giving her the same chance to respond as she gave Biden.
Continuing through the debate during the otherwise cringing moments where they were having a love-fest about anthropogenic global climate change the subject of drilling in ANWaR came up and she acknowledged disagreeing with McCain on that issue but she looked into the camera, winked, and said "I'm still working on him on that issue." I thought that was really refreshing, natural, and not what one would expect from a career politician but from a real person.
On the subject of anthropogenic global warming I was not surprised at her response...it was not as unequivocal as Biden's but she (probably speaking for McCain) thinks it's a problem that the US must address. What rubbish!
She did refer to Biden as "O-Biden" at one point which made me cringe a little but the opposing camera showed Biden smiling for whatever that was worth; I'm sure that the left-wing bloggers really made hay out of that. I also have to admit to cringing when she said "Well...there you go again Joe...". Saying that when she did just sounded as if she was trying too hard to work in a quote from Reagan somewhere in her responses.
She did not hold any punches for the gay marriage question by saying that she was against redefining marriage as something other than between a man and a woman and I'm sure that The Obama was quite surprised to hear Biden agree; it's my understanding that The Obama is for it and Biden was not answering for himself but for the campaign as was Sarah.
Biden did a good job too in my opinion. The only real gaffe that I heard was his use of the term "Bosniacs" when referring to his work with the Clinton Administration in bringing together "the Serbs, Croats, and Bosniacs" to the negotiating table in the breakup of Yugoslavia. I admit to laughing when I heard him say that.
Biden also made a very dramatic and prolonged point of saying that the CinC of our forces in Afghanistan said that "the Surge" would not work in Afghanistan...followed immediately by saying almost in the same breath that "they do need more troops there"...laughable.
Biden also said that The Obama's plan to assist the sub-prime mortgagees would not only involve helping them get a better rate BUT also reducing the PRINCIPAL. Well how the hell can I get in on that action??!! I'd like to get my principal reduced too! Does he not realize the ramifications of this lame idea? One of which is if mortgage holders are forced by the government to rewrite a loan principal then it's probably going to cause interest rates to skyrocket (at least for the rest of us poor schleps with good credit who want to buy again eventually…or for the first time).
One last thing regarding Biden...he employed a typical liberal tactic on a couple of occasions by naming what I call a laundry list of items/issues/votes, etc. I think that this is a cheap shot in debates because the opposition never has enough time to answer each item as to the veracity or reasoning...low blow Joe in my opinion.
Lastly, I did not think that Gwen Ifill did a bad job. She was a little off-balance by Sarah's blunt reply about how she was going to respond to the questions and I thought that she was a little goofy in asking separately worded questions to Biden and Sarah. My only real complaint about her is that she did not seem to allow Sarah any time to respond to some of Biden's responses but I suppose that could get endless if you don't stop and move on. I don't recall hearing her ask any "gotcha" questions nor seeming to be obviously biased but perhaps I'm being too magnanimous.
All things considered I think like many of you that both candidates were successful in doing what they had to do...I might add that I heard Katie Couric's comment on Palin which was "...Sarah Palin did not embarrass herself or McCain."
Yeah...Katie you're a bitch.
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