The Vice Presidential Debates: Overall Good Theater, Barring A Couple of Mis-steps The Campaign Staff Hope Will Be Forgotten
Governor Palin held her own, according to most punditry, even the admittedly one-sided Geraldine Ferraro... I had the card more in favor of Senator Biden, who really came through as a strong, focused and tight debater.
Sen. Biden made a slip or two, as when he again gleefully emphasized that Sen. Obama and he would "end this war!" — disingenuous at best, since ANY president taking office will (taking the advice of military and diplomatic personnel who have been working very, very hard for years to make it happen) "end" the war and bring the troops home. And they will be doing it on the backs of the men and women on the ground who have secured Iraq from the opportunistic murderers and political thugs, in order to hand it off to a strengthening Iraqi governing body and police and military.
But Palin missed the slip, allowing Biden to drive forcibly home a non-point as if it were a game-winner.
Palin's big whiff came when she was asked a leading question about Dick Cheney and his interpretation of the role of the vice president. Palin swallowed the hook:
Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are. ...
IFILL: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?
PALIN: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation.
Note from McCain's staff to Mrs. Palin: never speak of Dick Cheney. And if you do, make sure it is not in a positive way.
Vice President Cheney represents, to too many people, a sort of dread, supernaturally-powered bogeyman, or — on good days — Rasputin.
Biden, a good debater, absolutely ran Palin through with a verbal skewer after she did this.
But I have yet to see any major news outlet or political website resonate the exchange, and I'd wager the GOP is hoping it disappears into the general relief that Palin did not self-destruct in public.
Most commentators, having underestimated her as some Daisy Mae character out of Dogpatch, Alaska, came away giving her unusually high marks.
Perhaps being undersestimated has its upside?
In general, Palin did (to me) as best perhaps as she could, but came away with a "C+" grade from me, against Biden's "A" or "A-." Her closing statement, in particular, was so weak that several of my high school students who are in the Junior Statesmen, California Scholarship Federation and Mock Trial, could have given her excellent tips on how to tighten it up and make it more valuable. If these two were the presidential candidates, the night would have carried heavily in Biden's favor.
But.
They are only the VPs.
And so the next two debates will (and ought to) count more in the mix.
If the GOP (and the voting public) are lucky, Sarah Palin has been reduced in rank from "possibly running for president if McCain dies" to merely "running for vice-president," which is how she ought to be seen.
Then, we can get back to comparing McCain to Obama to Barr to..., etc.
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