Palin is an ignorant, uneducated fool-The VP debate thread!

[Pekka]

Holy crap. That Fox thing was starting to be scary already. The first time they lifted their hands I was like OK, so it's nto so much undecided really. Then, when the first guy started talking I was like OK, they decided earlier that this guy will go first so he prepared for it. Then the second guy? THird lady? Oh man, it got scary, simple and straight out 1984 ****.

[MarkG]

mccain gives up on michigan

McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/02/mccain-pulling-out-of-mic_n_131287.html

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Bosh
Gah.

I'm used to politicians dodging questions, Biden certainly did his share of that but I don't think I've ever seen a politician just completely and utterly ignoring the whole topic of a question and just blathering on about energy.

She even said that's what she was doing. I thought, anyone with a brain can tell she's too stupid to be VP at that point. She's was making up her own rules for the debate to try to hide her ignorance.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by MarkG
fox "undecided" group. everybody loves palin!

btw, i've never seen a political discussion with a large beer sign at the back

The craziest thing I saw on that was a poll result that said that 46% said Palin is qualified to be president.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
The point was that his getting caught and put on trial put an end to his ambitions, even if he wasn't convicted. No such luck yet with Cheney.

Cheney hasn't, as far as we know, tried to get a part of the US to secede and claim Presidency of that newly seceded part. In addition to killing Alexander Hamilton, who was the leader of the opposition party (it'd be like Cheney killing Howard Dean today), and almost outflanking his running mate to claim the Presidency out from under his nose (and Jefferson really loooved that).

From all aspects, I'd say Burr was a far more dangerous Veep.

[Japher]

We gots to support education! 'Specially in Alaska wher they don't know the word "have"! But they gots lots of energy stuff and a great view of Russia.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Japher
We gots to support education! 'Specially in Alaska wher they don't know the word "have"! But they gots lots of energy stuff and a great view of Russia.

She would have sounded a lot cuter if she would have used has instead of gots. We has edookashon.

[asleepathewheel]

Did Palin dodge questions, or did she not understand them? And which is worse? That last question regarding her perceived Achilles heel she didn't seem to get. It was a stupid question.

Biden did much better than I expected. I liked that he brought up (and got choked up) while mentioning his dead wife and kids. Palin should have reacted supportively to that and looked a bit cold to me. Humanized him a bit.

Palin sounded good, though she was very nervous at the beginning. She rambled and didn't answer questions. I think she should have hammered Biden about his earlier Obama/McCain statements. He was allowed to be on the offensive most of the night, which I find curious.

Thought the moderator was fair, though I would imagine she was extremely careful due to what transpired in the days before. I can't believe that someone with a monetary interest in the outcome would be able to moderate a debate, but I don't feel that it ultimately effected what occurred.

I don't see a true undecided's vote being changed by this debate (nor should it).

It seemed like Biden was quite taken by her feistyness, his teethy grins were fun

I did find it weird that his mind was changed on judicial nominees. Though that is probably a consequence of the era in which he began his career as an attorney versus the current one. It was a good answer, to claim naivete as a reason for changing your mind on something (and it being in the distant past)

[Imran Siddiqui]

That last question regarding her perceived Achilles heel she didn't seem to get. It was a stupid question.

I think she did get it... she just chose to ignore it. Biden answered it by saying his actual weakness was being "too passionate"

No one really wants to answer that question, so they turned it around.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
I think she should have hammered Biden about his earlier Obama/McCain statements. He was allowed to be on the offensive most of the night, which I find curious.

Yea, it was obvious that she wasn't capable of doing that.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Kidicious
The craziest thing I saw on that was a poll result that said that 46% said Palin is qualified to be president.

i believe that number used to be 60%. then palin started giving interviews...

[MarkG]

reposting from the other thread, a reminder of what biden is capable of

[rah]

Palin reminded me of the basketball players I used to tutor in school. Realizing that there was no way they could learn all the material, I had them memorize 4, 2 paragraph answers and told them to look at all the essay questions. If one matched the answer I had them prepare, great use it. If a question didn't match, just go ahead and answer with what you memorized. You won't sound stupid and they'll give you partial credit. You'll never get an A but you won't embarass yourself. They all passed their courses but never convinced their teachers that they had a firm grasp of the subject manner.

Palin did not embarass herself and got a couple of good zingers in but she needed to do better to help herself out.

Biden didn't embarass himself either, so that was a big win, but he did do better. He showed he had a much better grasp of the issues. He was well coached to attack McCain and not Palin. (Palin was coached the same) While he sounded a bit mechanical at times he also sounded quite passionate at others.

I don't like either parties main campaign blurb.
Maverick vs McSame

Solid perfomance by both, (based on expectations)
Biden wins easily, but agree that Palin not being awful will be considered a big win for her. (not for the ticket though)

[Flubber]

Originally posted by rah
Palin reminded me of the basketball players I used to tutor in school. Realizing that there was no way they could learn all the material, I had them memorize 4, 2 paragraph answers and told them to look at all the essay questions. If one matched the answer I had them prepare, great use it. If a question didn't match, just go ahead and answer with what you memorized. You won't sound stupid and they'll give you partial credit. You'll never get an A but you won't embarass yourself. They all passed their courses but never convinced their teachers that they had a firm grasp of the subject manner.

Palin did not embarass herself and got a couple of good zingers in but she needed to do better to help herself out.

Biden didn't embarass himself either, so that was a big win, but he did do better. He showed he had a much better grasp of the issues. He was well coached to attack McCain and not Palin. (Palin was coached the same) While he sounded a bit mechanical at times he also sounded quite passionate at others.

I don't like either parties main campaign blurb.
Maverick vs McSame

Solid perfomance by both, (based on expectations)
Biden wins easily, but agree that Palin not being awful will be considered a big win for her. (not for the ticket though)

Rah

Your take on the debate is almost identical to mine. Plain gave the answers she wanted to give regardless of the question and played up her folksy ways.

Biden came across as smarter and better informed.

Overall I think Biden "won" but Palin at no time was the trainwreck that she had been in those Katie Couric interviews.

[Ramo]

Originally posted by rah
Palin reminded me of the basketball players I used to tutor in school. Realizing that there was no way they could learn all the material, I had them memorize 4, 2 paragraph answers and told them to look at all the essay questions. If one matched the answer I had them prepare, great use it. If a question didn't match, just go ahead and answer with what you memorized. You won't sound stupid and they'll give you partial credit. You'll never get an A but you won't embarass yourself. They all passed their courses but never convinced their teachers that they had a firm grasp of the subject manner.

Palin did not embarass herself and got a couple of good zingers in but she needed to do better to help herself out.

Biden didn't embarass himself either, so that was a big win, but he did do better. He showed he had a much better grasp of the issues. He was well coached to attack McCain and not Palin. (Palin was coached the same) While he sounded a bit mechanical at times he also sounded quite passionate at others.

I don't like either parties main campaign blurb.
Maverick vs McSame

Solid perfomance by both, (based on expectations)
Biden wins easily, but agree that Palin not being awful will be considered a big win for her. (not for the ticket though)

I pretty much agree. Biden pushed a consistent, compelling message - McCain sucks. Palin didn't. The viewers sitting at home basically got the Obama campaign message without a real defense of McCain's.

Palin was saved by the McCain camp's change in rules to prevent follow-ups by Ifill. Remember, that's how Couric always embarrassed her. Not by the initial response, but the follow-ups

And, yeah, Ifill's last question was awful.