tagged w/ Gidget the Gunslinger
-
Nothing like second guessing the top of the ticket and thinking she's more popular with voters than he is.Nothing like second guessing the top of the ticket and thinking she's more... more
-
-
Who's running for president, anyway?
Far more people watched Thursday's vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin on television than watched the first presidential debate.
Nielsen Media Research says preliminary ratings in the nation's 55 biggest markets were up 42 percent from the same measurement of John McCain and Barack Obama's first encounter last Friday.
Nielsen's specific estimate of how many people watched Thursday night will be out later, but indications are it will be one of the most-watched political debates ever.
Curiosity over Palin's performance undoubtedly played a role, but don't discount timing: More people generally watch television on Thursdays than Fridays.Who's running for president, anyway?
Far more people watched Thursday's... more
-
-
ivxx
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
Warning: may induce seizure
-
-
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
-
-
Watchdog groups have called on Palin to release details of her income and taxes since other candidates already had done so. The campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain released her records for 2006 and 2007.Watchdog groups have called on Palin to release details of her income and taxes since... more
-