The Vice Presidential Debate Review

The Vice Presidential Debate went off without a hitch in St. Louis at Washington University. The candidates appeared to be both confident and poised to handle this debate. They shook hands and Sarah asked Joe Biden if she could call him Joe?

It was apparent within a few seconds of both Palin and Biden appearing on stage, Palin's determination not to make the mistakes of her boss in her eye contact with both Biden and the camera. She made the effort to look up on several occasions and talk to the camera. That was an improvement over John McCain's obvious lack of eye contact with both Obama and with America.

Joe Biden was professional and gracious in his introduction to Sarah and Gwen Ifill. They started the debate with the expectation of Americans low for Sarah Palin and higher for Joe Biden.

Analysis of this debate, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, has to be based on what they actually said. The moderator, Gwen Ifill, did not moderate on a fair basis in my opinion. She interrupted Joe Biden 3 times, Palin did the same thing, she let her continue to talk and talk. WAY over the time. She didn't interrupt Palin once that I heard.

Clearly she went way overboard in the other direction, trying to appear impartial and not to be a supporter of Barack Obama. She didn't keep Sarah Palin on topic. She let her campaign without answering anything. Not the best moderator for this debate.

Joe Biden answered clearly and precisely. Joe Biden stated the facts in 98% of the questions asked him. He kept his composure and did not let Sarah Palin's little snips and snipes deter his temperament. I was very impressed with Joe Biden. He didn't stand on that stage and attempt to use his time to campaign. He spoke to the questions that were put before him and he addressed the false statements that Sarah Palin continued to babble.

Sarah Palin's performance in the VP Debate, to me is one of " Are you ever going to answer one question?" Just one! She did answer two. She answered the question on Iraq. She stated that, We would be there as long as we needed to be there to win! She agreed with Joe Biden on Dafur and Afghanistan now. She was incorrect on her statement about what the Commander in Afghanistan said about the surge working there.

The Commander in Afghanistan said today that a surge in Afghanistan, like the one in Iraq would NOT WORK! Sarah Palin insisted he didn't say that. She said that McCain's belief is that if Israel says so, we may have to use force in the Middle East. No conversations, no disagreeing, just because they said so.

She appeared to win the Grist.org "Talking Points Bingo" game many were playing repeating statements like " All of the Above" or "maverick" several times.

Though Sarah Palin appeared more confident, she was not portraying the maverick she so wanted to portray. She did use some sort of "little girl voice" when talking to Joe and doing what appeared to be an "All American Girl" act. I am not really sure what that was.

She looked into the camera as though she were on that beauty queen stage years ago and was asked, "If you could change one thing in the world today, What would it be?" Have you watched the beauty pageants? Her whole demeanor changed and she became another person. My view is, that was her attempt at identifying with America.

I was hoping to hear Sarah Palin talk about issues. Health care she totally dodged, and again turned it into a campaign speech was a "no answer" ending. She totally agreed with Dick Cheney and his views about who the Vice President is supervised by. Dick Cheney says he is a part of the Legislative Branch. Not what the constitution says.
Dick Cheney has taken that self imposed theory to use and abuse his powers of office. Sarah Palin supports that belief!

The plain, hard facts here are Joe Biden looked America in the eye and talked about what we are talking about. He told us what Obama's Plan was to fix the problems we have. Sarah Palin didn't tell us anything about a plan. Not one thing.

Sarah, Come on. Did she say and I quote: "Not Got To Allow"? She said this 3 times in a row. But as for the issues and this debate, I didn't hear any solutions from Sarah Palin. She used the questions to blame Barack Obama or to make a speech for McCain/Palin or to otherwise deflect our attention.

This has been the McCain/Palin strategy all along. Distractions=confusion and non-decisions.

As a Republican for my entire life, I was not swayed by this debate. I felt belittled by the Joe Six Pack statements and I felt Sarah Palin continued to avoid the REAL issues that she SAYS she understands. She may understand, but she did not offer any solutions. My vote is still for Obama/Biden.