10.02.2008

the takeaway

What a boring debate! I think the only takeaway is that Sarah Palin has not disqualified herself from the office of the Vice Presidency.

Also, it's hilarious that Joe Biden said he spends a lot of time at Home Depot.

9 comments:

Dave said...

I thought the debate was fun.

Curious

Zach said...

I thought the substance was really lacking.

Which is why I said it was boring.

It was certainly nerve-racking, though.

Dave said...

It was nerve-racking for me for the first 10 minutes. Once I realized Sarah was falling into our style, I was fine.

Also, I don't think it was terribly lacking in substance. There is one debate for VPs and they have 1.5 hours to debate all of the issues. Besides, on substance, Gov. Palin is new to Washington. She doesn't know all of the minutia, but she can articulate her principles (when they line up with Sen. McCain's) and what she has actually accomplished in Alaska.

Not that this is related to your post, but I think we have to remember that debates aren't for us. They are for the undecided voters of America. There were over 20 debates in the primary, unfortunately that is where the "substance" is left too. And I have to say that as Americans got to know Sen. Biden and Gov. Palin last night, they realized they like Gov. Palin a lot more. And since she didn't come off as incompetent, the issue of VP is essentially off the table now.

Zach said...

Good points.

You should post them in a legitablogpost.

Kyle Cupp said...

Dull, I say, especially at the beginning. Palin showed that she could blatantly avoid answering questions with style and confidence. Both candidates mostly took each question as an opportunity to talk about something else, whatever memorized lines and slogans (white flag of surrender!) remained in their to-say lists, though Palin seemed to have done this more. The moderator let them do this without challenge or follow-ups. We never heard from Palin what her Achilles-heel was. Biden wasn’t pressed by the moderator to explain his spin on his Iraq War vote. They both agree on gay rights?

Zach said...

Kyle, you echo my thoughts almost exactly. Eerie!

Odysseus said...

The thing I noticed last night was how Joe's face had changed with age. I remember the happy-go lucky "I don't have a chance of winning the primaries" look on his face as he campaigned various times for the Democratic nomination.

But now, something has happened to his eyebrows. When he talks, he looks like a football coach trying to rouse his players into a mean-on. It was kind of a Saddam Hussein-type fury on his face, even though he was rather placid. I'm serious, watch the clips with the sound off (I am hearing impaired and use captions, so I had to turn the sound up and assure myself he wasn't reaming somebdy out).

I'm not voting for him, but I would like that face on my President.

Dave said...

You all have to loosen up and drink 4 or 5 beers while watching the debates.

It makes them much more interesting.

Zach said...

haha!