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Biden-Palin debate

From Santosh On 3 October 2008 View Comments

In perhaps the only Vice Presidential debate I’ve ever watched, seen a lot of Presidential debates but c’mon Biden v/s Palin is so much better than Cheney v/s Leiberman or Cheney v/s Edwards, watching a winking Palin square off against a fairly circumspect Biden was like watching a boxing match where both boxers circle each other warily, rarely landing a punch.

Biden sighed repeatedly, attacked John McCain, attacked the Bush administration, attacked the Iraq war, defended Barack Obama and stuck to time tested terms like “fairness” and “equality”. Palin with a perpetual smirk on her face, delivered her canned speeches with aplomb, defended McCain, grew defensive when Biden linked McCain to Bush, dodged the question on whether she supported gay marriages and went about being “folksy” like, you guessed it, George W. Bush. Oh, and she winked and repeated the word “maverick” every 5 minutes or so.

Biden stood out on two occasions:
When he attacked John McCain’s claims of being a “maverick”

When he harkened back to his personal life as a single dad:

Neither committed any major gaffes to hurt themselves, their Presidential running mates or their party. Verdict: Draw, with Biden perhaps winning on points.

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  • Runa
    r, I do think you cannot unequivocally say she will never support gay marriages, you are not her nor do you know her future beliefs.


    Granted.I am not her and will never be her thankfully- I am quite happy being me.

    My point is that Biden ended up looking like he agreed with her - wouldn't you say? His answer was ( I am paraphrasing form memory here) :"Barack Obama and I do not support gay marriage ..." and then went on to speak about constitutional protection etc .

    One can sneer all one wants to at folksiness - but unfortunately thats what wins elections.Not ideal but it is what it is.

    I still think its a tie.Neither of them blew me away.
    My comments rise out of the general disgust I have with the unabated sexism of the mainstream media
  • desi's wife
    Great Job, Santosh! I think you nailed it on head.

    In regards to the "grew defensive when Biden linked McCain to Bush" comment above, it was Palin's job to convince the American public that McCain is the best candidate, but it was not required to become defensive and sarcastic to do so. She became defensive because she was not going to be able to convince many with her argument.

    "Ergo she does not and never has ( and alas, never will) supported gay marriage." Although I am no Palin supporter, I do think you cannot unequivocally say she will never support gay marriages, you are not her nor do you know her future beliefs.

    Biden did not miss a beat with his comments on gay marriage and as you believe her opinion was clear, his was as well.

    And in the context of being fair, Biden won this round. Palin did look far better than in her previous interviews, but she appeared disrespectful with all her "folkishness". She did not win any races in this debate.
  • Wouldn’t you have done the same? The left is pushing the meme that McCain is Bush lite. He is not even close.

    Like I said in the post Biden defended Obama and Palin defended McCain. As for McCain, I don't think he resembles Bush. In fact I think he himself is not sure who he is or what he stands for. Me thinks he takes his maverick label too seriously and as a result is all over the place. Just my opinion :-)

    I think she was unequivocal on her stance

    You are correct. I was quoting from memory and most likely mixed it with some other issue. Post updated.
  • Runa
    Nice write up Santosh. I need to quibble a bit:
    grew defensive when Biden linked McCain to Bush


    Wouldn't you have done the same? The left is pushing the meme that McCain is Bush lite. He is not even close.

    dodged the question on whether she supported gay marriages


    I think she was unequivocal on her stance: She clearly said that she believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Ergo she does not and never has ( and alas, never will) supported gay marriage. She did follow up with a lot of stuff on civil unions ,tolerance etc. Biden practically said the same thing.He blew an opportunity to state clearly that he and Obama support civil unions.

    Not that I am going all Repug on you - but let's be fair. It was a tie with Biden getting the edge. Not once did Sarah Palin appear as the airhead bimbo the leftist main stream media would like us to believe she is. Lets not fall into the same trap
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