What happened last night? Whatever it was, it sure as hell wasn’t a debate. Let’s start with the obvious. Ifill sucked. She honestly deserves the award for the worst debate moderator ever. All her talk about how she worked on the “debate” questions… Nonsense. In fact, halfway through the event anyone would be forgiven for thinking they could be Vice President.
Moving on to Biden… Joe did well “debating” with one arm tied behind his back. How badly did he want to point out Palin’s General McCellan gaffe? Come on, it must have killed him to bite his tongue lest he be called a sexist bully. And the fact he won handily is no surprise. People who answer questions competently and intelligently tend to win.
Okay. Deep breath. Sarah Palin…
Is there any defense of her performance last night? I guess you could say she memorized her talking points and didn’t drool, but beyond that the empress had no clothes. She was too cute by far, and the winking… WTF? (Note to McCain Campaign: Women don’t like that sort of behavior, and while some men like flirts they rarely take them seriously.) I could focus on her gaffes (McClellan, embassy in Israel, troop levels in Iraq, McCain’s policy on foreclosures), but the sad truth is last night was not about the issues – at least as far as Palin was concerned. To Palin, last night was a game of dodge ball at best and an audition for the Miss America title at worse. But maybe I’m being too hard on her. She has, after all, only been at this for like five weeks.
In the end, Obama has to be thrilled with Biden’s victory, while McCain continues to demonstrate his deep insight into the female psyche.
End of rant.