The NY Times wrote:
"Short of a complete bravura performance that would have been tough for even the most experienced national politician to turn in — or a devastating error by the mistake-prone Mr. Biden, who instead turned in an impressively sharp performance — there might have been little Ms. Palin could have done to help Mr. McCain."Actually, Sen. Biden [I'll give him the respect of his position rather than the NYT "Mr."], did make a series of factual "mistakes"... or simply ignored the facts... including his assessment that Hezbollah was driven out of Lebanon. But this debate really wasn't about "facts" as much as "presence."
Sen. Biden did his best "senatorial" impression: stern, silver-haired, calm, aloof, professorial, understanding, smiling when necessary. Gov. Palin did her best "just folks with common sense" impression: cut-through-the-bullshit, I'm-one-of-you, friendly, folksy, outsider who sees the corruption and deceit.My impression is that not much was accomplished by either candidate to sway undecided voters.
Sen. Biden used the word "fundamentally" much too often in an attempt to demonstrate his clear understanding. Gov. Palin used the word "also" much too often in an attempt to string together possibly-related issues when addressing specific questions.My assessment: Grade C.
At times, it was difficult to tell who was the "conservative" and who was the "liberal." Both were "war hawks" against terrorism [although Biden brought the Party line that they were all in Pakistan and Afghanistan so now was a good time to pack it up in Iraq]; both were "liberals" against Wall Street.
Neither had a clue about the economics of alternative energy and both were Al Gore disciples who haven't kept up with better understandings of climate dynamics.
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