Dr.Who
Well-Known Member
EVERY Republican in America rejoiced last night: "At long last the Couric captivity is over! Sarah Palin is free!"
Palin had suffered through a series of nightly interview bits with CBS anchor Katie Couric that seemed to last a month, with the Alaska governor shedding credibility by the minute. But last night, they instantly became a distant memory.
Palin held her own against Joe Biden, and flashed the poise and charm that made her such a star at the Republican convention.
Hers might have been the most unusual debate performance since Ross Perot's running-mate James Stockdale showed up at the 1992 VP contest. From the moment she opened by saying the best measure of the economy is what parents are saying on the sidelines of soccer games, it was clear how utterly different she is in American politics - a candidate of, by and from the middle class.
She talked about regular middle-class people with the credibility of having lived that life every day, even for a time lacking health insurance. Or, as she put it at the end, she and John McCain will "fight for the middle-class, average family - like mine."
Biden was fine and controlled his notorious gassiness, but they were two candidates playing on different levels.
She dropped her G's ("puttin' government back on the side of the people") and said "darn" and "doggonit" in a folksy, familiar style; he referred to himself in the third person in the self-important senatorial style.
She kept it general, direct and common-sensical; he loaded his answers with detail. She exuded a sincerity that pulsed through the screen; he seemed like a typical senator.
Last night, Palin plainly had two ingredients that were missing from her network TV interviews, and they made all the difference:
* She was more familiar with the substance. If she'd been as well-briefed and comfortable with the material before those interviews, the McCain campaign could have spared itself weeks of bad publicity.
* She'd learned to sidestep questions she found awkward and steer the discussion onto better ground for her (usually energy policy).
Put those together with her off-the-charts likeability, and you could see why she was a political force that so confounded the opposition in Alaska.
Yes, there were obvious weak points in her knowledge. She didn't defend McCain effectively on deregulation, didn't rebut Biden's detailed critique of McCain's health-care plan and seemed at sea in answering a question about nuclear policy.
But she also laid good clean hits on Biden. And he couldn't respond to some of them - for instance, his own criticism (during the pri- maries) of Obama as not ready to be president.
Plus, he was the one who made the more obvious factual errors, falsely denying that Obama had pledged to meet without pre-condition with Iranian President Ahmadinejad and claiming that McCain had voted the same way as Obama on a budget resolution repealing the Bush tax cuts.
In the runup to the debate, Biden stressed how often he'd debated women. Sure - but not a woman like Sarah Palin.
At times, Biden seemed almost to be laughing at her, smiling broadly during her answers. At others, she seemed to get under his skin and he talked fast and heatedly in his responses.
One wonders if he ever realized that, even with 35 years in the Senate and all his expertise and fluidity in policy, he wasn't beating the hockey mom from Wasilla.
Palin's syntax is odd, and she has noticeable verbal tics, saying "here," "there" and "also" too much. Occasionally, she gets lost in a blizzard of her own words. But the quirkiness makes her more vivid, setting her apart from the rest of the political establishment.
By the end, as she got even more comfortable, she seemed to become more winsome by the minute - her smile sparkling as she even threw off the occasional wink. She jabbed Biden with a good-natured, "There you go again, Joe." And Biden himself seemed genuinely charmed.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/1003200...mnists/the_veep_debate__shes_back__131933.htm
Palin had suffered through a series of nightly interview bits with CBS anchor Katie Couric that seemed to last a month, with the Alaska governor shedding credibility by the minute. But last night, they instantly became a distant memory.
Palin held her own against Joe Biden, and flashed the poise and charm that made her such a star at the Republican convention.
Hers might have been the most unusual debate performance since Ross Perot's running-mate James Stockdale showed up at the 1992 VP contest. From the moment she opened by saying the best measure of the economy is what parents are saying on the sidelines of soccer games, it was clear how utterly different she is in American politics - a candidate of, by and from the middle class.
She talked about regular middle-class people with the credibility of having lived that life every day, even for a time lacking health insurance. Or, as she put it at the end, she and John McCain will "fight for the middle-class, average family - like mine."
Biden was fine and controlled his notorious gassiness, but they were two candidates playing on different levels.
She dropped her G's ("puttin' government back on the side of the people") and said "darn" and "doggonit" in a folksy, familiar style; he referred to himself in the third person in the self-important senatorial style.
She kept it general, direct and common-sensical; he loaded his answers with detail. She exuded a sincerity that pulsed through the screen; he seemed like a typical senator.
Last night, Palin plainly had two ingredients that were missing from her network TV interviews, and they made all the difference:
* She was more familiar with the substance. If she'd been as well-briefed and comfortable with the material before those interviews, the McCain campaign could have spared itself weeks of bad publicity.
* She'd learned to sidestep questions she found awkward and steer the discussion onto better ground for her (usually energy policy).
Put those together with her off-the-charts likeability, and you could see why she was a political force that so confounded the opposition in Alaska.
Yes, there were obvious weak points in her knowledge. She didn't defend McCain effectively on deregulation, didn't rebut Biden's detailed critique of McCain's health-care plan and seemed at sea in answering a question about nuclear policy.
But she also laid good clean hits on Biden. And he couldn't respond to some of them - for instance, his own criticism (during the pri- maries) of Obama as not ready to be president.
Plus, he was the one who made the more obvious factual errors, falsely denying that Obama had pledged to meet without pre-condition with Iranian President Ahmadinejad and claiming that McCain had voted the same way as Obama on a budget resolution repealing the Bush tax cuts.
In the runup to the debate, Biden stressed how often he'd debated women. Sure - but not a woman like Sarah Palin.
At times, Biden seemed almost to be laughing at her, smiling broadly during her answers. At others, she seemed to get under his skin and he talked fast and heatedly in his responses.
One wonders if he ever realized that, even with 35 years in the Senate and all his expertise and fluidity in policy, he wasn't beating the hockey mom from Wasilla.
Palin's syntax is odd, and she has noticeable verbal tics, saying "here," "there" and "also" too much. Occasionally, she gets lost in a blizzard of her own words. But the quirkiness makes her more vivid, setting her apart from the rest of the political establishment.
By the end, as she got even more comfortable, she seemed to become more winsome by the minute - her smile sparkling as she even threw off the occasional wink. She jabbed Biden with a good-natured, "There you go again, Joe." And Biden himself seemed genuinely charmed.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/1003200...mnists/the_veep_debate__shes_back__131933.htm
