Who won the VP Debate?

[CanOfCorn]

Nobody won this debate.

 

They both exceeded expectations and both had their problems.

 

Palin: Seemed nervous at the very beginning, but calmed down after a few minutes. Answered the questions posed to her very well. But, when responding to Biden, talked in circles, and didn't really respond to him directly, more along the lines of talking points given to her, it seemed to me. Also, was very down-home, which is where she needs to be.

 

Biden: Didn't come off as a prick, and let his mouth run amuck except for the one comment about the "ultimate bridge to nowhere." That was kind of a low blow, but that was it. Showed his humanity when talking about being a single parent, even though I'm a skeptic, I think that was pretty believable. Did focus a little too much on the past without really saying, until the end, that you can't move forward without looking back.

 

Biden came across as more knowledgeable, and he should, since he's been in the Senate for 25+ years. Palin came across as knowledgeable as she could be and much better off than the Katie Couric interview, but she had nowhere to go but up. I was impressed at her ability to bounce back, but she's still shouldn't be throwing stones about leadership ability. McCain can, Palin, not so much.

 

Just my .02.

[StrangeSox]

Lol, I love how you post stats that show for the last 3 months Obama's lead in overall polls has stayed consistent (anywhere from 4-7%) and the electoral map has stayed roughly the same (except for the bump for mccain after the RNC). I see nothing in those first to links that show Obama "seperating" from McCain.

 

Again, I'm not saying Obama won't win, or that he won't win easily. I just feel it's a little premature to concede the election in the first week of October. Look at recent history in elections - polls and surveys aren't exactly accurate come election day.

 

There's a current trend of Obama pulling away from McCain pretty strongly. That's all I'm saying. To say that he's not showing any signs of separating, despite a ~10 pt. swing in the last several weeks and a huge change in the electoral votes is just wrong.

 

You're asking for any signs of Obama gaining ground. As soon as anyone posts polls, polls of polls, or electoral vote counts, you just say "but they can change tomorrow! Polls aren't accurate!" I have to ask, by what metric is Obama NOT pulling away right now (last 2-3 weeks)?

Edited October 3, 2008 by StrangeSox

[bmags]

You know frankly, I'm getting really sick of the villification of the liberals on this board as a defense mechanism for some of the conservatives here. While kap has been great and ss2k5 has been awesome especially with his insight on financial issues, I'm getting sick and tired of *some* posters instead of debating a point, just calling the other posters Obama flaks and that's the new argument. Conservative posters here have strong opinions too, yet I don't see liberal posters ever hiding behind "oh you're just a republican sheep this is ridiculous your points are invalid because you're blind" type posts EVER. So why not just stick to the discussions at hand, as a whole, considering this is a baseball message board discussing politics, this stays pretty high minded and cordial. So how about just discussing the players in the race and not attacking the posters?

[Reddy]

You know frankly, I'm getting really sick of the villification of the liberals on this board as a defense mechanism for some of the conservatives here. While kap has been great and ss2k5 has been awesome especially with his insight on financial issues, I'm getting sick and tired of *some* posters instead of debating a point, just calling the other posters Obama flaks and that's the new argument. Conservative posters here have strong opinions too, yet I don't see liberal posters ever hiding behind "oh you're just a republican sheep this is ridiculous your points are invalid because you're blind" type posts EVER. So why not just stick to the discussions at hand, as a whole, considering this is a baseball message board discussing politics, this stays pretty high minded and cordial. So how about just discussing the players in the race and not attacking the posters?

:

 

this is very, very true.

 

did anyone else cringe when Palin did the "i've been on this job, what, 5 weeks now?" ... yep, she's DEFINITELY qualified to be VP.

[Jenksismyhero]

You know frankly, I'm getting really sick of the villification of the liberals on this board as a defense mechanism for some of the conservatives here. While kap has been great and ss2k5 has been awesome especially with his insight on financial issues, I'm getting sick and tired of *some* posters instead of debating a point, just calling the other posters Obama flaks and that's the new argument. Conservative posters here have strong opinions too, yet I don't see liberal posters ever hiding behind "oh you're just a republican sheep this is ridiculous your points are invalid because you're blind" type posts EVER. So why not just stick to the discussions at hand, as a whole, considering this is a baseball message board discussing politics, this stays pretty high minded and cordial. So how about just discussing the players in the race and not attacking the posters?

 

Fair enough, but I'm not going to let someone say things that are ridiculous and not attack them on it.

[bmags]

attack the point, then.

[NorthSideSox72]

so, the way Palin talks (albeit overdone) hasn't been made fun of....which believe it or not, millions of americans talk in funny sounding ways.

Again, zero to do with sexism. Feel free to call it stupidism.

 

And she intentionally hams it up.

 

 

[BigSqwert]

This guy regurgitates all of my thoughts about the debate rather succinctly.

 

Some highlights:

 

Palin spent the debate spewing talking points. She sounded like a newscaster, reading copy provided by someone else. She didn't demonstrate any depth of insight, knowledge or understanding about the problems the U.S. faces. When confronted with arguments, she couldn't do any thinking on her own. She simply reverted back to a talking point, and sometimes not even the right one. Often, it seemed not like she was choosing to answer a different question, but as if she didn't understand the question she was supposed to answer. She hammered home outright lies and distortions, as if saying them again and again with conviction would make them true. I started to wonder if she even really knew that what she was saying wasn't true. I started to feel like she was Ron Burgundy in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, signing off with "Go f--- yourself, San Diego," just because it was on the teleprompter.

 

But really, in the end, all this isn't even about Palin. It's about us, as a country. Any society with its priorities straight would have watched Palin last night and, regardless of ideological beliefs, ruled her out as a candidate for the vice presidency. It's not about her lack of experience (although you could certainly make that argument), nor is it about her extreme right wing beliefs (which were nicely hidden last night), but it is all about her lack of ability. The fact that she is ordinary when the job calls for extraordinary.

 

The fact that Palin's performance last night was not roundly dismissed as that of an unexceptional, unqualified, unknowledgable, unintelligent joke is an embarrassment for this country. Now, apparently, not being a total train wreck is enough to garner accolades for a debate performance. Knowledge, insight and the ability to reason are, apparently, irrelevant. The key is just spitting out prewritten talking points and showing that, aw shucks, you're just another hockey mom from the heartland of America who is "just like us." I think that's great the next time we're looking for someone to lead the local hockey team supporter's club. But to be vice president and confront the crises facing the United States, I'd prefer someone not like me at all, but, rather, a lot better than me. And certainly a lot better than Sarah Palin.

[lostfan]

You know frankly, I'm getting really sick of the villification of the liberals on this board as a defense mechanism for some of the conservatives here. While kap has been great and ss2k5 has been awesome especially with his insight on financial issues, I'm getting sick and tired of *some* posters instead of debating a point, just calling the other posters Obama flaks and that's the new argument. Conservative posters here have strong opinions too, yet I don't see liberal posters ever hiding behind "oh you're just a republican sheep this is ridiculous your points are invalid because you're blind" type posts EVER. So why not just stick to the discussions at hand, as a whole, considering this is a baseball message board discussing politics, this stays pretty high minded and cordial. So how about just discussing the players in the race and not attacking the posters?

Great post, bmags.

[mr_genius]

not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but about 70,000,000 people watched that debate.

 

http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/10/vp-debate-ratin.html

[bmags]

not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but about 70,000,000 people watched that debate.

 

http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/10/vp-debate-ratin.html

 

Goodness!

[lostfan]

SNL, money as usual.

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