OK, I was working on a client during the debate, and only just now finished watching the debate, as well as reading the transcript. And Joe Biden clearly won the debate. He won on the issue, he won on his manner, he won with his emotional depth and display. Palin was clearly too scripted, with memorized talking points that she had to use over and over again. When a question came along that she couldn’t answer, she went back to energy. The problem is that she doesn’t really know much about energy, either, and the scripted answers someone on the McCain campaign gave her showed.
Biden’s answers weren’t overly ponderous or rambling, for the most part they stuck to his message. He was reasonably concise, yet full of detail and knowledge. I didn’t really care for how he didn’t look at Palin enough, addressing his answers to debate moderator, Gwen Ifill, but it wasn’t that creepy avoidance that McCain did last week with Obama.
Palin looked into the camera for most of her answers, which made her look like a television anchorwoman. On the one hand, it was good that she did that, but since her answers were all largely superficial, it made her look even more empty than she already is.
And what’s with the gotchas she kept trying to fling at Obama and Biden? Obama voted against funding the troops? Egads, as Biden pointed out, so did McCain. Those sorts of attacks never go anywhere when dealing with legislators, as they always have all sorts of votes that don’t make much sense when taken out of their context.
The two went back and forth, with Biden correcting Palin every time she distorted Obama’s record, and then hitting back with something against McCain. Palin really didn’t get the same sort of traction from her attempts to do the same.
But one of the big highlights of the evening came when Biden slammed McCain on his maverick status:
Look, the maverick — let’s talk about the maverick John McCain is. And, again, I love him. He’s been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people’s lives.
He voted four out of five times for George Bush’s budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he’s got there.
He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against — he voted including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan, when he voted in the United States Senate.
He’s not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.
He’s not been a maverick on the war. He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.
Can we send — can we get Mom’s MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can’t — we can’t make it. How are we going to heat the — heat the house this winter?
He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.
So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.
But the absolute gem of the evening, which sent the “dial line” of the live CNN poll way up was Joe Biden talking about his family.
Look, I understand what it’s like to be a single parent. When my wife and daughter died and my two sons were gravely injured, I understand what it’s like as a parent to wonder what it’s like if your kid’s going to make it.
I understand what it’s like to sit around the kitchen table with a father who says, “I’ve got to leave, champ, because there’s no jobs here. I got to head down to Wilmington. And when we get enough money, honey, we’ll bring you down.”
I understand what it’s like. I’m much better off than almost all Americans now. I get a good salary with the United States Senate. I live in a beautiful house that’s my total investment that I have. So I — I am much better off now.
But the notion that somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise two kids alone, I don’t know what it’s like to have a child you’re not sure is going to — is going to make it — I understand.
I understand, as well as, with all due respect, the governor or anybody else, what it’s like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They’re looking for help. They’re looking for help. They’re not looking for more of the same.
This moment in the debate won the debate for Biden – that deep display of paternal affection, so rarely seen these days in national politics. I know McCain brought Palin in because he thought she was folksy and could connect, but Biden out-folked her in that simple emotional disply far beyond what she has been able to do with her exaggerated accent and upswept harried-mom hairdo.
I will give some props to Palin. She didn’t completely embarrass herself, or make any huge mistakes. She seemed together for the most part.
But in an election as important as this is, simply not embarrassing oneself is not nearly enough. And since Biden won this debate, I suspect we’ll see a post-debate bounce for Obama.
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I wholeheartedly agree; Biden although not by a devastatingly wide margin did in fact win this debate. It wasn’t hard to see that by the early polls, or even the frustration in the voices of the republicans defending Palin in the follow ups. Although they both did well in the beginning playing the rolls they where handed with Palin attacking and Biden staying calm a collected it quickly faded and became clear who knew what they where talking about and who was completely going off what they had been told to say. So even though it wasn’t the “NASCAR disaster” everyone had hoped, it was certainly a win for Obama and Biden, cheers to that.
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