The VPILF vs. the Man With The Creepy Forehead

Well now, that was much more interesting than the first Presidential debate. I almost wish we could have another VP debate. I took notes last night as I watched it with Stacey and T-bone, but before I go down those I want to say that I think Biden won the debate handily. The media seems to be running with it was either a draw or a slight edge to Biden and conservatives are generally holding to it being a draw. In reality, I think Biden beat her pretty soundly. The problem is that people went into it with such low expectations for Palin that the fact that she didn't sounds simply retarded somehow makes this a draw. That's absurd. If you judge it based solely on the debate and without political persuasion or expectations going in, it's pretty clear that Biden won. Which isn't to say Biden was without questionable comments-as I will point out below-but instead that he simply sounded as though he had a much better grasp of the issues. Now, some of my observations;

-Biden starts talking about controversial issues he's been working on. What is the first thing he cites? Violence against women? How is that controversial, unless he's advocating more of it.

-The first, and it was weak, attack from Palin was regarding Biden's year in the senate, and how that made him an insider. In the same breath she then praises John McCain as a maverick, apparently unaware that he's also been in the senate for 20 years?

-Five minutes into the debate, Palins has said "darn right" three times. Thankfully she stops at three.

-At 8:09pm CST the GOP officially abandons the notion of personal responsibility as Palin blames the entire financial crisis on "predatory lenders" preying on the unsuspecting public. Please, that's ridiculous. On top of that, she then asks for more government oversight and more government involvement....it sounded like Bush.

-Biden hammers Palin about McCain's constant votes to de-regulate, she dodges the question. The moderator asks if she'd like to answer, she dodges the question. I mean flat out doesn't even reference it, instead falling back to energy.

-Ten minutes after askin for more government involvement, Palin says that, "government isn't the solution, but the problem" and promises less government. Um, which is it?

-Palin claims energy is her area of expertise and keeps coming back to it in spite of the questions. At this point in the debate, approximately 30m in, she sounds lost. She sounds as though she's reading from a set of rehearsed talking points in spite of anything Joe Biden says and in spite of the questions actually asked of her.

-Biden proposes not just adjusting the interest on bad home loans, but adjusting the principle. Um, what? So the bank is just going to give the customers money? This made absolutely no sense.

-Why does Biden keep numbering his answers? Stacey points it out and it after that it annoys me everytime he does it. Every answer was first this, second that.

-Palin brings it back to the 05 energy bill that Obama voted for four times. Is that all she's got? Because a 3 year old energy bill really doesn't sound like much, especially when Biden pressed her on it taking 10 years before we'd see a drop of the oil she's proposing drilling and she doesn't address that.

-I had to rewind it to be sure, but yes, Palin did in fact call him General Betrayus.....that's a pretty bad freudian slip.

-At 8:43pm Palin made her first succesful rebuttal of Biden and it was regarding Iraq. This was the point in the debate where she started to sound not just comfortable, but competent. If you watched the last half it was a draw, the thing is, if you watched the entirety of it she was beating soundly.

-At 9:05 I switched it from FNC to CNN which again was running their little meter at the bottom of the screen. And while I have no idea how they're measuring this weird little graph, I'm even more confused on why this week it was measuring "uncommitted Ohio Voters" which as Stacey pointed out is poorly worded....are these single voters? Bad in relationships? Or just undecided?

-At 9:14 Palin says that John McCain has tapped her. We all laugh. Especially since it was 20s after I commented how nice her ass and legs looked, and the third time T-bone made a really creepy comment about how he would have her.

-Why was there so much argument over the role of the VP and whether it's more executive or legislative? Besides it being a pretty clear issue, it was a really weird avenue for the debate to go down as they ended up arguing about Dick Cheney.