Thursday, October 02, 2008

The V-P debate: first thoughts

It's just over. I’ll have more tomorrow, but right now this - - -

The MSM Obama Tank Corps that spent the debate waiting for Palin to blunder and/or give them their “deer in the headlights moment” to lead with are still waiting.

They’re going to have to concede she at least did well or make something up to smear her performance tonight.

I’m betting they’ll search for a smear. They’ll have to look hard, though I don’t doubt they’ll find something.

A good bet: tomorrow Obama's MSM will start again hustleing the Troopergate slimes.

Meanwhile, the McCain-Palin supporters are going to be high-fiving.

Palin and Biden both did well, but Palin did better than Biden in circumstances in which she was expected to do worse.

She was the clear winner though both candidates were informed and articulate.

I think their supporters will be pleased: each candidate made the points that pre-debate they were expected to make.

Biden showed himself extremely well-informed on foreign policy. He did a good job of touting Sen. Obama’s record and proposals. He repeatedly hit McCain’s voting record.

But he also fluffed and got some things wrong that McCain's team can hit him with. His statement on clean coal and China is one example. Biden presented his position as the opposite of what he's actually said.

And what he said is on tape.

What about Palin?

I’ve said for weeks she knows energy development and policy. She showed it tonight.

Biden was more formal, even distant, and seemed often to be holding in some anger.

Palin was relaxed and did a superb job of presenting her background and experience without seeming me-me.

I’d like to hear what you think.

More tomorrow.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Palin is the real deal and the Obamabots are going to be highly frustrated. Our prayers were answered.

Anonymous said...

I would be curious as to how many people tuned in.

57 million watched the first Prez debate last weekend. I would expect even more watched tonight.

This stuff is bad for the MSM because people know what they saw and can form their own opinions. Thats tens of millions of people beyond the dishonest influence of agenda setters. In fact, people who saw the debate and have, to date, been getting impressions of Palin from the MSM will wonder what the heck the media have been talking about. But, how much lower can the credibility of the MSM fall. My guess is that the MSM is sub-Bush and down in Congress territory.

I think some of the pundits are overstating how well she did but, at the same time, the MSMers who have been systemically trying to destroy her have nothing to work with after tonight.

Anonymous said...

The tactic of just ignoring any question Palin didn't have a prepared answer for does nothing to help the mainstream American voter like myself gain any confidence in evaluating her as a VP candidate to help run our country.

Anonymous said...

I expected Palin to do better under the circumstances, and she did. Her strength is in providing generic responses, just don't ask questions or scrutinize the responses.

She also sounded like a broken record on several occasions, and was her usual self by circumventing certain questions and talking off topic for just long enough that the clock runs out. She succeeded, and I'm afraid, in impressing quite a few folks (most of them likely set to vote for her ticket anyway).

Biden performed well. He exceeded my expectations, and did good job on couple of occasions trying to pull Palin back from her diversion tactics.

He simply outclassed Palin.

Anonymous said...

I generally agree with what you said.

Plus, I think your buddy from the Chronicle showed up to comment. Proving once again you do allow comments from those who disagree with you.

Anonymous said...

John -

Saw the debate last night and I thought the Governor did quite well. Also, I think the Senator, as his wont, dissembled on several points. Having said that, I was truly distressed by the Governor's harping about the greed and corruption on Wall Street. I don't think there is any corruption, and I think greed is a good thing. Look at everything we have - it's greed that got us those things. Greed is another way of saying, people want to make money. Moreover, the greed on Wall Street was ultimately a reaction to threats to prosecute (persecute) lenders if they didn't lend to poor people. But you won't hear anyone in government connecting those dots.

Several other things the Governor could have said that she didn't:
Tax the corporations and unemploy the workers (as more corporations go belly-up or downsize); and yes - the oil companies did make 600 (or was it 900) billion dollars in profits since 2001 - they had a couple of good years, but per year, it comes to just over 100 billion, and compared to the 3 trillion governments at all levels took in since 2001 on gasoline, it's kind of small, and compared to the huge size of the American economy, the 100 or so billion is a couple of mills. Context is important here.

While I have every intention of voting for McCain/Palin, I did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling for the some of the comments she made. It is just that they were less egregious than the ones Senator Biden made.

Jack in Silver Spring

Anonymous said...

John -

Here is a link to NRO on Biden's dissembling:

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTVhMThlNjRkZGFlMmUwOWFkND
ZkZjk0MzBiY2JiYmY=

Jack in Silver Spring