Not A Disaster
Posted on October 2nd, 2008
by Daniel Larison |
|
How’s that for a compliment? There’s no question that Palin was outmatched the entire time, and I am fairly sure that viewers will come away thinking that Biden was the winner and was more qualified for the VP role. Give her credit–she held on through the entire thing, clutching to her prearranged attack points for dear life, and she didn’t say anything that was fantastically horrible. Her statement on civilian casualties caused by airstrikes in Afghanistan would have been atrocious if I believed that she knew any better, but I feel confident that she does not know anything about the situation in Afghanistan. McCain’s campaign is already in terminal decline, so it probably didn’t matter that much anyway. Had she completely failed, it would have made the result more lopsided, but I expect that there will be only a marginal boost for Obama in the next few days.
Meanwhile, the gift that keeps on giving, the eternal Couric interview, gives us this. Biden says that Cheney’s usurpations and crazy constitutional theories were the worst things he’s done. Palin says, I kid you not, the worst thing he did was his duck-hunting accident. What is there to say?
Update: CBS poll of uncommitted voters gives Biden the win 46-21% with 33% saying it was tie. CNN respondents rated Biden the winner 51-36.
Filed under: politics
How much lower can McCain go, really? He is nearing his floor, I think. He could probably strangle a child on national TV and poll 40%.
Though I suspect that the remaining undecideds will break disproportionately to Obama. Unless there is a game changer at this point. But what could it be? A foreign policy crisis? With Obama’s reassuring debate performance (again, from a typical voter perspective – not reassuring to me, surely) and Palin’s cluelessness on foreign policy, I’m not sure that that would help McCain. There are some rumors regarding Rezko that could lead to a game changer, but I suspect that that is just GOP wishful thinking.
But we still have a month to go, and I shouldn’t be getting complacent I suppose.
If those CBS & CNN numbers hold up, I owe an apology to the American people. Sirs and madams, I have underestimated you.
And yeah, Daniel, I caught that bit about our magic bombs that only kill “hte terrists” in Afganistan, too…yeesh.
[...] Larison: [...]
Boring… The only time my interest was really piqued was when she said Obama-Biden want to “wave the white flag of surrender†by setting a date certain for withdrawal from Iraq, and then went on to say something to the effect of “We will leave when our commanders decide the Iraqi government can handle it.†Think about that for a second: In a place where we went in
to get weapons of mass destructionto help set up a democracy, America under McCain is going to decide when the sovereign nation of Iraq is sovereign enough to handle itself.Told ya.
As the eternally perky cheerleader, she did just fine. But the woman lacks gravitas. And intelligence. While she didn’t make any game-killing gaffes, her utter inability to answer even half the questions grated by evenings end. Pre-arranged talking points only take you just so far. Biden wiped the floor with her.
I thoroughly enjoyed the debate – much more than I did Obama-McCain I.
It was pointed out elsewhere that for many Americans who don’t follow politics obsessively, this was something of an introduction to Joe Biden. My guess is they’ll like what they saw, and he’ll come off well in the post debate recaps.
I didn’t expect Sarah Palin to implode, and she did clear the very low bar that had been set before the debate, but only by virtue of the bar having been set so low in the first place. Her response to Ifill’s VP = Executive branch, Legislative branch or hybrid showed she’d given no thought to the matter, and hadn’t been prepped for it – it was the one true deer in the headlights moment.
She also, I think, missed a trick (not the only one of the evening) by failing to respond in an emotional way to Biden’s choking up at the memory of his wife’s death and son’s injury. For Palin to drop straight back into “John McCain’s a mavericky maverick” in response was unsettling in its own way.
In the end, I fully concur with Daniel’s thoughts in this post and the previous one. If you were disposed to like Palin before this performance, my guess is you’ll like her more after it (The Corner is leaning back on the pillows with its second pack of cigarettes right now). Democrats will have been put in great heart by Biden. Independents and undecideds were offered a clear contrast.
I also liked (I know, I’m a softy) the display of respect and cordiality between the candidates during and after the debate, and the family scene at the end. It didn’t seem forced – there are very real and important things at stake, but civility in politics is still heartening, at least to me.
Andrew:
I also liked (I know, I’m a softy) the display of respect and cordiality between the candidates during and after the debate….
I did, too.
Daniel:
I am fairly sure that viewers will come away thinking that Biden was the winner and was more qualified for the VP role.
As you say, I came away thinking that Biden was the winner and was the more qualified—which means that you have been right about Sister Sarah and I have been wrong.
Howard