My first instict a half hour into this debate was that Joe Biden was coming across as horribly as I imagined. He seemed politically calculating and cowardly. He fudged his way around his vote in favor of the bankruptcy bill, and - unbelievably - he appeared to agree with Sarah Palin by opposing gay marriage.
As a related aside, worthy of a post all its own, Gwen Ifill was just horrendous in her permissiveness, allowing Palin to present herself as much more accepting on the gay
marriage, and broader gay rights, question, than Palin's actual policies and views actually make her. Ifill's permissiveness and failure to follow up was characteristic of the debate as a whole. I'm not sure if the failure was Ifill or the debate rules, but if her performance was a reflection of the rules for the debate, then who needs a moderator? Might as well just put up a screen on the wall with optional questions to answer, and do away with a live, breathing person. Ifill was, at best, Captain Dunsel.
But back to Biden. For the first half, Biden seemed content to play on Palin's turf, and tried then to win points by speaking in statistics. It was not, I thought, a terribly strong tactic, emphasizing for people that Biden was detached and a Washington insider, and I was, frankly, troubled that Biden was undermining Barack Obama's big bounce over the last several weeks.
But I may have been too critical, because the second half of the debate was a great contrast, either because Biden got on more comfortable ground when talking about foreign policy, because Biden's strategy was to just keep moving straight ahead until Palin destroyed herself, or because the key was to just be accurate and not lose, to be steady, rather than try to win.
And coming into the foreign policy portion, Palin completely collapsed into nonsense babble and ignorance. From a factual standpoing, she was - is - a complete disaster, and Biden is authoritative. I don't know how will this play with the audience. But Joe came off as confident and competent, while Palin attacked (while wearing a perky smile) and dropped into folksy nonsense. We get it, Sarah: you're from Wasilla, and John is a maverick. And so are you. So mavericky, one of the world's original mavericks, in fact. The mavericks that mavericks look to in order to devine maverickness.
Yet it was just that, her constant refrain on being a maveric, that led, finally, to the moment when Biden kicked her legs out from under her, burying under a career of evidence the idea of John McCain as a maverick on the issues where it really mattered.
I believe Biden clearly won this debate.
Unfortunately, he still hasn't completely won me over. (Not that it matters so much.) As I said, he was cowardly on some issues where I would have liked to see courage. He's going to be our next Vice President, and I will very happy about that. But he never quite lives up to what I would like to see from him.
But maybe it's just me.
But back to Biden. For the first half, Biden seemed content to play on Palin's turf, and tried then to win points by speaking in statistics. It was not, I thought, a terribly strong tactic, emphasizing for people that Biden was detached and a Washington insider, and I was, frankly, troubled that Biden was undermining Barack Obama's big bounce over the last several weeks.
But I may have been too critical, because the second half of the debate was a great contrast, either because Biden got on more comfortable ground when talking about foreign policy, because Biden's strategy was to just keep moving straight ahead until Palin destroyed herself, or because the key was to just be accurate and not lose, to be steady, rather than try to win.
And coming into the foreign policy portion, Palin completely collapsed into nonsense babble and ignorance. From a factual standpoing, she was - is - a complete disaster, and Biden is authoritative. I don't know how will this play with the audience. But Joe came off as confident and competent, while Palin attacked (while wearing a perky smile) and dropped into folksy nonsense. We get it, Sarah: you're from Wasilla, and John is a maverick. And so are you. So mavericky, one of the world's original mavericks, in fact. The mavericks that mavericks look to in order to devine maverickness.
Yet it was just that, her constant refrain on being a maveric, that led, finally, to the moment when Biden kicked her legs out from under her, burying under a career of evidence the idea of John McCain as a maverick on the issues where it really mattered.
I believe Biden clearly won this debate.
Unfortunately, he still hasn't completely won me over. (Not that it matters so much.) As I said, he was cowardly on some issues where I would have liked to see courage. He's going to be our next Vice President, and I will very happy about that. But he never quite lives up to what I would like to see from him.
But maybe it's just me.
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