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Is This Photo Sexist? YOU DECIDE: Fair or Unfair photo of Governor Palin?

This is yet another example of pure sexism. Why is it acceptable to photograph Sarah... more

dabne
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How Sarah Palin blew it

Friday October 3, 2008 10:03 EDT
How Sarah Palin blew it

Joe Biden and Sarah Palin were talking to two different Americas Thursday night. Actually, that's unfair to Joe Biden; he was trying to talk to everyone. I can say for certain, though, that Sarah Palin was talking to -- and winking at -- her own private Idaho, and for long stretches of the debate, it was an unnerving experience.

We could be in for a few days of pro-Palin commentary, since her subjects and verbs corresponded. For at least the first hour, she held her own; she was funny sometimes, occasionally charming. Still, the Obama-Biden ticket will survive it. Biden was stronger on every single substantive point, and that's the impression that will last.

But the pit bull in lipstick was back. After her disarming "Hey, can I call you Joe?" Palin was vicious, with a winning smile. After a passionate Biden plea to "walk with me in my neighborhood," in Delaware and Scranton, where "the middle class has gotten the short end," she ridiculed him: "Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again! Pointing backwards again!"

There were two key moments for me when Sarah Palin blew it badly. One was substantive, one was symbolic. The substantive was her bizarre statement about being happy that Dick Cheney had expanded the powers of the vice-presidency, and wanting to expand the powers more. I think that's what she said, it was one of many moments I didn't entirely understand her point, but I got her overall meaning. Biden came back with a decisive: "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president in American history," and he defended the existing limits on vice-presidential power. Point: Biden. Big time.

The symbolic moment Palin flubbed was subjective, of course. But I instant-messaged a friend that she lost the debate when Biden choked up over losing his wife and child in a car accident in which his sons were critically injured -- and she went straight back into "John McCain is a maverick." I truly expected her to express human sympathy with Biden, and her failure to do so showed me something deeply wrong with her. But maybe that's just me.

She made other mistakes that others have already caught: She called the top commander in Afghanistan "General McClellan"; his name is David McKiernan. She said the troop levels in Iraq are down to pre-surge levels; they're not. She simply didn't answer a lot of the questions. Moderator Gwen Ifill tried to pull her back, but Palin is stubborn; she had her talking points, and she stuck to them.

I thought Biden and Palin tied for the first third of the debate, that Palin actually won the second third on moxie and charisma, not policy (Biden looked visibly angry at a few points, and that's never good), but Biden cleaned her clock in the last third. He quoted his dad telling him, "Champ, when you get knocked down, get up!" -- and he listened to his father. Biden got up, and he won the debate.

We'll see how it plays out in the days to comFriday October 3, 2008 10:03 EDT How Sarah Palin blew it Joe Biden and Sarah Palin... more

MeganMcKenzie
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What would you ask Sarah Palin?

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Courting Middle-Class Voters -

Tell us why this is interestingRepublican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr. each sought to claim the mantle of "kitchen table" candidate in the first and only debate between the major-party vice presidential candidates last night, both arguing that their running mates better understand the concerns of middle-class Americans worried about the nation's faltering economy.
On a night when presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama were relegated to the sidelines, Palin and Biden raced through a fast-paced debate that touched on same-sex marriage, the war in Iraq, and the nation's energy and foreign policies. Each escaped without major mishap, and Palin seemed to repair an image that had been damaged by recent media interviews and increasing public doubts about her readiness for the nation's No. 2 job.

From the opening moments of their highly anticipated 90-minute debate, each portrayed themselves as a voice for Middle America and attempted to make the case that their ticketmates are best prepared to bring change to Washington and the nation.
Palin, the first female governor of Alaska, referred to "average, middle-class families like mine," and in her first answer she suggested that the proper place to take the temperature of Americans' concerns about the economy would be at a Saturday-morning soccer game.

"Now, thankfully, John McCain has been one representing reform," Palin said. "People in the Senate, his colleagues" -- she turned to the senator from Delaware -- "didn't want to listen to him and wouldn't go towards that reform that was needed."

Biden trained his fire on McCain, noting that the senator from Arizona "two Mondays ago" claimed that the "fundamentals of the economy were strong."

He added: "That doesn't make John McCain a bad guy, but it does point out he's out of touch."

The debate, with its emphasis on quick answers and numerous topics, became a barrage of numbers and competing and conflicting visions of Obama and McCain.

Likely to be more lasting for viewers was the lack of obvious mistakes on either side, and an image of Palin that was more like the confident, smiling politician who burst onto the scene with a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention, and less like the stumbling candidate who has seemed ill prepared in a series of interviews broadcast recently with CBS News anchor Katie Couric.

She was respectful and cordial to Biden -- "Hey, can I call you Joe?" she asked when she greeted him onstage -- but quick to try to put him on the defensive about his past differences with Obama. "I watched all those debates," she said, referring to the Democratic primaries in which the two were rivals.

But the essence of the night -- and one of the major arguments of the campaign -- may have been illustrated by a long exchange after Biden said policies of the Bush administration have been an "abject failure."

"There's a time, too, when Americans are going to say, 'Enough is enough with your ticket,' on constantly looking backwards, and pointing fingers and doing the blame game," Palin said. "There have been huge blunders in the war. There have been huge blunders throughout this administration, as there are with every administration. But for a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there's just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that's where you're going."

**more at article**

Tell us why this is interestingRepublican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr.... more

starr111
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'Palin really didn't answer the questions'

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Palin Delivers, But Doubts Linger

Palin, the first female governor of Alaska, referred to "average, middle-class families like mine," and in her first answer she suggested that the proper place to take the temperature of Americans' concerns about the economy would be at a Saturday-morning soccer game.

"Now, thankfully, John McCain has been one representing reform," Palin said. "People in the Senate, his colleagues" -- she turned to the senator from Delaware -- "didn't want to listen to him and wouldn't go towards that reform that was needed."

Biden trained his fire on McCain, noting that the senator from Arizona "two Mondays ago" claimed that the "fundamentals of the economy were strong."

He added: "That doesn't make John McCain a bad guy, but it does point out he's out of touch."

The debate, with its emphasis on quick answers and numerous topics, became a barrage of numbers and competing and conflicting visions of Obama and McCain.

Likely to be more lasting for viewers was the lack of obvious mistakes on either side, and an image of Palin that was more like the confident, smiling politician who burst onto the scene with a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention, and less like the stumbling candidate who has seemed ill prepared in a series of interviews broadcast recently with CBS News anchor Katie Couric.

She was respectful and cordial to Biden -- "Hey, can I call you Joe?" she asked when she greeted him onstage -- but quick to try to put him on the defensive about his past differences with Obama. "I watched all those debates," she said, referring to the Democratic primaries in which the two were rivals.

But the essence of the night -- and one of the major arguments of the campaign -- may have been illustrated by a long exchange after Biden said policies of the Bush administration have been an "abject failure."

"There's a time, too, when Americans are going to say, 'Enough is enough with your ticket,' on constantly looking backwards, and pointing fingers and doing the blame game," Palin said. "There have been huge blunders in the war. There have been huge blunders throughout this administration, as there are with every administration. But for a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there's just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that's where you're going."

Tell us why this is interestingPalin, the first female governor of Alaska, referred to "average, middle-class... more

starr111
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4 years ago
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