Friday, 3 October 2008
VP Debate
My first thought while watching the debate was how bad the Gwen Ifill, the moderator, sucked. She was awful. First off, the debate was choppy. Instead of letting the candidates go back and forth, she seemed to rush them from topic to topic. She seemed hell bent on getting through all of her questions. The first half of the debate there was some good give and take between the candidates, and should have been expanded upon as Jim Leher did with the presidential debate. Alas, Ifill had to get to her question.
I would much rather have seen more debate on domestic issues and less foreign policy / crappy interview questions. She could have dropped questions on interventionism, Israel and Palestine, and nuclear proliferation. The last few questions were really asinine. What would you do if the president dies? a question about your biggest weakness, A question about what the VP does, and a question on the VP powers. Who cares? The time could have been better spent on energy policy, health care, taxes, and education rather than half the stuff she asked. Instead we got a series of pointless questions.Of course she had a couple of snarky remarks to Palin. The gay marriage was a shot to discredit her with religious right.
Do you support, as they do in Alaska, granting same-sex benefits to couples?
Their was this cheap shot at a joke Gov Palin made earlier this summer.
Governor, you said in July that someone would have to explain to you exactly what it is the vice president does every day. You, senator, said you would not be vice president under any circumstances.
Enough about Gwen Ifill, let's talk about the main participants. First let's start with Sen Biden. Three things popped out about him. First, I was impressed that he managed to avoid rambling on incoherently. I think that had more to do with the format than his personal restraint.
Secondly, he sounded like a Washington Insider. All of his answers were given in Washingtonese. I don't think he could have changed that. It is just who he is. He has been their to long to change how he talks.
My other impression was somewhere along the way he decided that during every answer he was going to speak forcefully about the issue. I guess he thought it would make him look like he knew what he was talking about. At the time, I knew he was making stuff up, and the mistakes are coming to light today. But at the same time I thought that the casual observer might think he sounded very knowledgeable.
I have two thoughts for Palin. One, you can tell she is not a Washington insider. She didn't speak as one of them. She came across as an average person on the street. I also thought she did a good job with the questions and stayed on message. There were a number of times she deflected well, and got back on message. Her accusing her opponent of looking in the past was outstanding.
Palin won the debate for two reasons. She was genuine. She connected to middle America. Secondly, she sounded like someone who could be VP. With all of the bashing of her in the last few weeks. The attempts to make people thing she is unqualified turned this into a high stakes event. If she screwed up she was done in national politics and McCain was done as well. On the other hand, a strong performance was going to be another home run. And she delivered yet again in the clutch. Their was nothing Biden could do. If McCain loses, Palin will be undoubtedly the front runner in 4 years.
