Palin vs Biden: Morning After

I thought that Joe Biden won the debate last night pretty handily, but Palin did a pretty good job as far as attacking.

Palin pros:

• Attacked both Biden and Obama's records.
• Gave superior delivery.
• Smiled and looked at the camera the whole time.
• Had answers, even if they weren't to the question at hand.
• Did not burst into flames on stage.
  

Palin cons:

• Answers were at times false/misleading and got called out by Biden.
• Stated she wasn't going to play by the rules and dismissed Biden AND Gwen Ifill.
• Sounded like rote repetition of stump speeches.
• Vague across the board.
• Skipped questions to go with ones she had answers for

Her best moments were attacking both Biden and Barack Obama on their Iraq War differences in an effort to split them ideologically. "Oh, yeah, it's so obvious I'm a Washington outsider. And someone just not used to the way you guys operate. Because here you voted for the war and now you oppose the war. You're one who says, as so many politicians do, I was for it before I was against it or vice- versa. Americans are craving that straight talk and just want to know, hey, if you voted for it, tell us why you voted for it and it was a war resolution." It was a pretty strong attack, and Biden did not respond to it.

But her worst moments were clearly her answers to Q 16 and 17 on what the VP's role should be and the Nameless One's power grab in that office. "I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president" and "Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president" followed by "Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation" should scare the bejeesus out of people, because it sure did me. Not having a clear grasp on the US Constitution is pretty much a disqualifying criteria for being President OR Vice-President.

On the other side, we had Joe Biden.

Biden pros:

• Stayed relentlessly on message.
• Attacked John McSame, not Sarah Palin.
• Counterattacked Palin's false/misleading answers strongly.
• Displayed command of the subject matter at all times.
• Clearly won the second half on foreign policy issues.
  
• Answered nearly all the questions at hand.
  
• Did not burst into flames on stage.

Biden cons:

• Looked like a Senator, and acted like one in a change campaign year.
• Was on the defensive the entire first half of the debate
• Was brutally attacked on domestic issues.
  
• Glossed over defending his record at times.

Biden's best moment was when he connected with the audience at the end, chocking up over his wife and daughter's death. It was the first time in the debate he looked like a real normal guy. "Look, I understand what it's like to be a single parent. When my wife and daughter died and my two sons were gravely injured, I understand what it's like as a parent to wonder what it's like if your kid's going to make it" and "But the notion that somehow, because I'm a man, I don't know what it's like to raise two kids alone, I don't know what it's like to have a child you're not sure is going to -- is going to make it -- I understand" were pretty powerful stuff. His strong line about John McSame is not a maverick soon after were also very well played.

But Biden's worst moment was his terrible answer on American interventionism in Darfur. "I don't have the stomach for genocide when it comes to Darfur. We can now impose a no-fly zone. It's within our capacity. We can lead NATO if we're willing to take a hard stand. We can, I've been in those camps in Chad. I've seen the suffering, thousands and tens of thousands have died and are dying. We should rally the world to act and demonstrate it by our own movement to provide the helicopters to get the 21,000 forces of the African Union in there now to stop this genocide." This is pretty much the Bush Doctrine on Iraq right there, and severely undercut his argument that Obama/Biden would be any different than Bush/Cheney on foreign policy. It's yet ANOTHER place to send US troops when we don't have them to send.

Again, I thought Biden won the debate, the polls show Biden won pretty clearly among undecideds and also won handily on the issues of change, knowledgability and being ready to assume the Presidency.

Palin may have stopped the bleeding, but the McSame campaign is still down close to double digits across the board now, and she needed a knockout just the get back in this race. That didn't happen. With the next debate on Tuesday between Obama and McSame in Nashville at a Town Hall style meeting, we'll see what happens. At best it was a wash for Palin, and unlike McSame's "at best it was a wash" performance last week when the polls were significantly closer, the Straight Talk Express needed a hell of a lot more that what Palin showed.