Surprisingly Sarah Palin didn't do that bad, but i think that Biden won the debate. I thought that Biden had a very good night. He appeared comfortable and poised. He answered the questions and backed up his points of view with alot of hard facts. Sarah Palin did a good job too. She didn't fall on her face like alot of people expected her too and had no major mistakes. She appeared very poised and certain. The reason that i think Biden won the debate is because Sarah Palin didn't answer the questions sometimes. I thought it was kinda weird that the moderator didn't redirect the question to her after she failed to answer it. I also felt that Sarah Palin didn't offer any specifics on how McCains policies were different from George Bush. Throughout the whole debate Biden was attacking John McCain and why he was a bad choice for President. Palin did attack Obama, but not as consistently as Biden.
To me it appeared as if Palin's main goal for the debate was to appear as an average women who knows the troubles of life, and as a "Washington outsider". While Biden's main goal for the debate was to attack John McCain constantly. I also thought Palin was a little hypocritical when she said something along the lines of being a very tolerant person and for civil rights and equality, but she doesn't believe in marriage between two men or between two women. I also thought that one of the major weak points for Palin in the debate was when she failed to respond to Biden's claims that McCain has the same foreign policy ideas as Bush.
Governor Palin's main points in the debate
-Governmental Reform (need to fix all the greed and corruption on wall street and in Washington)
-Energy Independence through more drilling
-Win the war in Iraq
-cut taxes on corporations
Biden's main points in the debate
-Alternative Energy
-Raise taxes on wealthy to fund healthcare and education programs
-End the war in Iraq
P.S. was it just me or does Palin say "nuclear" like George W. Bush?
Squishable Pre-Dawn Open Thread
1 hour ago
11 comments:
Ana, I heard that too, she says nuclear "nucular", and also Iran "i-ran".
I also believe that Joe Biden delivered the strongest performance tonight. He was confident and professional and spoke clearly. It was evident that Joe Biden is much more experienced. At first, I felt that Sarah Palin was more uncomfortable and at stumbling over more words. Biden was constantly criticizing John McCain, forcing Palin to defend his actions. However, Palin soon became more comfortable, it seemed, and even came up with a few attacks of her own. For example, accusing Biden of stating the past rather than looking towards the future. She fared better than many thought she would (although true, she did sometimes avoid questions).
Some of the issues I found interesting were Palin's points about drilling and Biden's points on ending the war in Iraq war in 16 months.
Biden clearly won. He was much more thorough in answering the questions and Palin kept sidestepping questions, talking about McCain rather than herself, and saying the same things over and over. Bipartisanship, Family, Maverick, i feel like it's just the same things being repeated for different questions. Well then again each side is probably spewing out praise for their favored candidate but whatever... I also found it odd that the moderator never redirected the questions at Palin after she avoided answering them but i guess the moderator might have simply been trying to avoid seeming biased against Palin.
New-Cue-Lur. Maybe just saying it like that is a mark of a bad candidate. McCain is often compared to being similar to Bush and i guess now people can compare Palin to Bush as well through this saying...
I agree, I believe that the knowledge that Biden expressed throughout the debate was far superior to that of Palin's. Palin's insincerity towards Biden, and poking fun at him and cracking jokes, was unprofessional, I think. Biden had to restrain himself from correcting Palin, even when the substance of her answers were far less specifc than Biden's.
I also find it quite interesting that Obama's slogan from the beginning of his campaign was change. Throughout Palin's arguments she was pushing that both herself and McCain were going to bring reform and change to Washington, when McCain votes as Biden says, four of every five votes with Bush. Is that change?
I just finished watching the debate and many of the analysis that has come after it. And while I believe that from an argumentative standpoint that Joe Biden was clearer and talked more definitively about the issues, I also believe that the McCain/Palin group won more in political terms than the Obama/Biden group, because I was pleasantly surprised by the clearness and air of knowledge that Palin seemed to have. It is true that Palin could have been briefed by hundreds of political experts before the debate, but that she had just debated with a 30 year member of the Senate and walked away generally unscathed, as we were led to believe she wouldn't, is very impressive.
I am not saying that I am now a Republican and will go vote for McCain/Palin (because I'm still not going to), I am simply stating that because of this debate, Palin was able to cast off a bit of the prejudice that has befallen her, how she keeps up with this performance and whether she can overcome her stupidities in the past, only time can tell.
I thought it was hilarious how Palin kept deflecting the questions. I couldn't believe it when she said "I'll answer that question later, but I think it is more important to talk about ...". Seriously Palin? You're not even going to TRY to answer?
And that idea of hers that we couldn't look at the past at all. I know why she's trying to avoid the Bush administration, but she didn't do it very subtly. Saying "There you go again, Joe. Looking at the past" pretty much made it clear that the past shows McCain's weaknesses.
Much more entertaining than the Presidential debate! Hopefully the next one will be just as much fun to watch!
I would have to agree with george (?) on this one. I think that what Palin did deserves some credit. Most of us thought that she was going to fall flat on her face. And despite a lot of negative press and falling reviews and supports that she has been getting over the past few weeks, she held her own up there for a huuuuge audience. After the RNC, Republicans were ecstatic and energized by Palin's energizing spirit and ideas. Over the past few weeks, this support has considerably dropped due to her seemingly limited amount of knowledge on current events and foreign policy, but I expect that her performance tonight was enough to re-energize the McCain/Palin supporters that were starting to become skeptical.
In terms of the moderator: I think she refrained from pushing for more concise answers from Palin because a main part of this debate is to let people listen to both sides and figure out which candidates they like better. I think that the pressuring of Palin for more answers would have been considered biased towards one side.
For some reason, I was a little surprised when the topic of gay marraige came up. I was surprised to see that Palin and Biden actually found a spot of agreement (idea of the nuclear family). To possibly clarify Palin's statement about civil rights and equality: I think that the argument that most people come up with who are against prop 8 would be that they do not believe that homosexuals should be scrutinized in anyway. Most would say that the word "marraige" is where the line is drawn. To many, the word "marraige" represents a sacred idea that has been preserved for hundreds of years. (then again, i would argue that if marraige were so sacred, then the government shouldn't allow britney spears to seperate from her spouse less than 24 hours of joining with him...)
This debate is very funny.
I don't expect points on this post, I just wanted to say it.
I also agree that Bidden won this debate, I can't tell you how happy it made me when he kept asking to get back on topic! Although in response to Palin's charges of looking to the past instead of the future he should have responded with something along the lines of we need to learn from the past in order to make sure we don't make the same mistakes in the future, that's why we don't need more Republicans in the White House. I also was pleased that Bidden spoke up when he was unsure of something, it really humanizes politicians and makes them more relatable, not just policy-and-politic spitting robots. Speaking of Palin, she also said "Talibani" and evaded the questions as if her life depended on it. I was extremely disappointed that neither party supports the legalization of gay marriage, for while it is a touchy subject, someone needs to take a stand. I suppose there is still hope that it may be legalized once the candidate is president and no longer has to worry about collecting votes.
I was a little confused about the gay-marriage part, but what i think happened is that Palin said she didn't believe that gay people have the right to marry in the traditional sense. But i thought that Biden was saying that it is not up to the government to decide it is an issue, but for people and churches to decide. I don't think he really said he was against gay marriage like Palin.
So, i don't think the mediator would be biased at all if she asked Palin to answer the questions that were asked of her...thats the point of a debate right? In her interviews on television the reporters didn't allow her to dodge questions and things like the whole bush doctrine fiasco happened. So, it makes me wonder if she was pressed for an answer if the same thing would happen. Although, i have to say i thought she did really well. That also might be because i had such low expectations for her.
Well i am not sure if this is true, but i read somewhere that when McCain and some members of the Republican Party were doing mock debates with Sarah Palin and she did really bad. In response to her bad performance, a week before the VP debate she was locked in a hotel room were she basically got drilled on everything she needed to know. If this is true then it paid off.
Did anyone else find it extremely hypocritical that Palin was touting how she "stood up to the oil companies" in Alaska, and yet, at the same time, pushing for oil drilling in ANWAR? And it would also seem that repealing the gas tax in Alaska could be construed as a benefit for big oil, because people buy/use more gas when it's cheaper...
But the main thing I noticed was how completely scripted Palin seemed, especially in the beginning. But as the debate started moving in different directions, and she had to actually answer questions, she started stumbling and going off on tangents about teachers in her family and stuff...
Also, did I really hear her mention something about working with al Maliki and the Taliban? I was pretty sure we were at war with the Taliban...
The anticipation coming into the debate was that Palin would blow the debate. Biden was expected to dominate, but Palin held her own in the debate. That in itself will most likely cause this debate to have a larger impact on the McCain campaign rather than the Obama campaign. Palin established that she wasn't as incompetent as the public was led to believe, although I'm sure a ton of people would love to argue this.
In terms of policy, I had a major issue with Biden terming Obama's tax plan as "fair." Fair would be equality. Equality does not involve pushing the majority of the national tax burden on a minority group, the wealthy, to help the majority stabilize itself. Salaries are typically representative of the difficulty of a person's job and how well the person succeeds. To greatly increase taxes on only the wealthy would go against the idea of working hard. Why strive to work harder for a higher income if the government essentially plans to punish those with higher incomes?
Also in terms of foreign policy, both campaigns seem eerily similar in their plans in Iraq. Obama and Biden plan on setting an 18 month withdrawal plan... and are then planning on sending the troops to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, McCain plans to leave the troops in Iraq for whatever amount of time necessary. He also plans on moving towards Afghanistan. Obama has largely tried to present himself as the one who will bring home the troops, but it now seems false. Both Biden and Palin said that the objectives in Iraq are to ensure that the Iraqi government can govern its people by itself and maintain peace. The Republicans simply haven't set a window of time. I would prefer not to rush an exit in Iraq, if only because of reminiscence from the Vietnam War and the attempts at a set time of withdrawal.
Biden won the debate, but I still don't agree with Obama's positions.
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