Lingering Thoughts on the Vice Presidential Debate

With last Thursday's "debate" between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin now history, the most anticipated debate since they began in 1960, and drawing the most viewers, did it live up to the hype? Did it answer our questions? Did it raise more questions than it answered? Did it underscore the importance of the vice presidency? Did it highlight the weaknesses and strengths of both candidates? And what they would bring to their administrations?

On all accounts, you betcha.

The contrasts between Biden and Palin were on display and never more apparent right from the beginning: Biden, with his confident presence, having been in the Congress for 35 years and having gone through so many of these debates, versus Palin, and her relatively short political career, early butterflies, and having the enormous pressure of disproving the negative press and shortcomings in recent tv interviews, and having to prove that she belonged on that stage.

It also became apparent as the questions were presented by Gwen Ifill that Biden was determined to be very disciplined, to be respectful of Palin, and that his answers and comments were those that he could recite in his sleep. Say what you want of Biden, he knows his stuff, he is confident, and as vice president he is ready to step in on "day one" if necessary.

Palin was determined to prove that McCain's choosing her as his running mate was not a political gimmick, that she was not going to be intimidated, and that she has the intelligence and grasp of issues that qualify her to be ready on "day one." Say what you want of Palin, she has "testicular" fortitude.

Darn right, you betcha, wink.

However, it was very obvious that she lacked in depth knowledge of many issues, and her answers, when she chose to answer the question at hand, were standard fare, very repetitive, and often incoherent, preferring to continually bring up the issue of energy which she appears to have a lot of experience.

Give her credit though for this: she is intelligent, she is charismatic,she is confident, the tv cameras love her, and her personal story of family and meteoric rise to be at the side of possibly the next president is very compelling. She and McCain may fall short this year but she has a future in politics that may play out to the dismay of the Democrats in the future. There may be but a handful of people in the world who would be able to cram in so much information in such a short period of time and be able to stand up before a record shattering tv audience and try to convince the American people that she is ready from "day one."

Having said that though, if it were not for the fact that the Republicans made an issue of Ifill's writing a book that might bring into question her objectivity and impartiality to her moderating the program (note: this was known to the producers, organizers, and the Republicans as far back as August 2008, no one had a problem with it, and the book was not about Obama but about blacks during the years of Obama being in the political spotlight), Palin's "I'm not going to answer that question" and going back to her repetitive talking points, Ifill or any other moderator might not have been so forgiving.

Did the debate answer at the very least who appears to be more ready to step in on "day one?"

Darn right it did. You betcha. No wink here people. This is serious.

Peace.
Larry