I’m still wondering about that Franco-US Joint Task Force that Sen Biden says kicked Hezbollah out of Syria. WTF???

His hometown restaurant, Katy’s, where he invited everyone to sit down for a meal, closed in the 1980’s.

Palin doesn’t know much about foreign policy and Biden makes it up in fantasyland.

I call it a draw.

It’s a load of hogwash. It’s Larry the Cable Guy. It’s the midwest equivalent of blackface. Honkyface. Fargoface.

Ugh.

But unlike harvesting a caribou, in politics there isn’t always meat left after the skinning.

Of course, all she did well was lie and dodge questions while winking at us, as if we’re all members of her just-plain-folks club, weary of the Joe Bidens who have ruined DC for the Joe Sixpacks. Hello? The Republicans have been in power for eight years.

But none of this, including the pundits’ usual complicity with the Republicans, seems to have worked. The voting public itself has called Biden the winner by significant majorities that are reflected in Obama’s increasing leads.

This is a pleasant surprise. I suspect it’s a result of the economic crisis — the usual fear that motivates voters has been redirected to the GOP. But maybe not. Maybe the population is waking up and really does see what the pundits, isolated in the beltway, can’t see, even as they continue to claim to speak for the same Joe Sixpacks Palin claims to represent.

Some of the things that grated on me during her performance were:

Dodging questions: I estimate Palin disregarded or refused to respond to about one third of the questions asked of her. Since when is saying “Let’s change the subject” considered a good debate skill?. It may keep you from falling flat on your face, but it’s disrespectful with the audience, the moderator and the opponent. In comparison Biden did a much better job of giving reasonably straight answers to the questions posed, not just the ones he cherry picked to answer.

Phony, over the top folksiness: I am sorry, I don’t want to hear Palin talk about “Joe Six Pack” in the VP debate anymore than I want to hear Obama talk about “Homeboys” in the presidential ones. It’s tacky and untoward. And, just how many “Doggone its”, You betchas”, “Heckuvas” and “Gollys” can you hear in one VP debate before you begin to feel like you are trapped in some sort of Groundhog’s Day nightmare in Beaver Cleaver Land?
By contrast, I though Biden found a good, middlebrow tone. I think he was engaging and understandable to the average listener, without having to pretend he was sipping a beer with Ozzie & Harriet.

Feigned political naivete: It thought the “I just don’t get you Washington insiders” line was one of the real low points of the debate, not only because is was a major dodge tactic, but it was hypocritical. I think Ms. Bridge-to-Nowhere-as-long-as-Uncle-Sam-is- paying, Ms. Wasilla-Pork-Barrel-Capital-USA, Ms. Troopergate, Ms. McCain-Wants-More-Oversight-on-Wall-Street, can flip flop with the best of the beltway insiders. She sure ain’t as pure as the driven snow. Biden appeared to be much more sincere and authentic in personal style than Palin in her cardboard character innocence.

Hot air & doublespeak: I heard almost nothing about what the actual platform is from Palin, other than platitudes like “cut taxes” and “clean up Washington, without a word about which or how. I definitely didn’t see even a trace of her purported “energy expertise” come through. There really was no meat in any of her remarks. I think Biden delivered considerably more substance on just about every question than Palin did.

All in all, Biden played the part of middle-of-the-raod statesman capable of advising the president, while she looked a whole lot more like, as Wheatley said, a Fox News anchor or a snarky Bush-like mouthpiece, with some spunk thrown in for kicks.

Sarah Palin did extremely well and she re-establish her connection after a month of withering attacks by Democrats and others. Never before has any candidate for national office been so throughly dimished by the national media with the intent of helping another campaign — in this case Obama.

McCain made the right pick for his campaign and it came through the screen. Her command of the screen is so massive that she was able to gain equal footing with the excellent Biden by just being herself. In television lingo, she would be regarded as having “it” — that unknown dynamic that gives certain persons a massive public/television appeal for largely unidentifiable reasons.

Biden and Obama should be happy that there is only one VP debate.

Palin is someone who connects with people massively. The Democrats need to be worried about her during the next 30+ days. The campaign that is improving during the campaign’s last 30 days is the favorite to win and Obama’s campaign does have the slightest sense of having peaked.

Seriously though,

I’m more impressed with “O’Biden’s” ability to run the country in case of an Obama emergency,
and
I’m more more terrified of the possibility of “McPalin” running the country in case of a McCain
emergency.

(wink wink to that Bridge to Nowhere) ;)