Woo, my first debate of the season!
So I managed to listen to the recording of the McCain/Obama debate after the fact (thanks Cindy!), but we had a sit-down at Ted's for this one, so I got to watch it real-time.
How very unimpressive.
Joe Biden came off as more coherent, mostly sticking to the questions. But his years in the Senate left most of his responses as polished windbaggery: sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Sarah Palin came off as very confident. But she utterly failed even to attempt to answer fully half, and likely more, of the questions put to her, preferring to make bare assertions and party platitudes.
Both candidates utterly failed on most fronts to address the concerns put before them. They both did the gay marriage tapdance, not wanting to offend anyone while still trying to sound as though they supported what voters want. (I'd say that Biden did the worst on this, ending up selling out after saying some pretty positive things, whereas Palin didn't even try. Though, she did attempt to equate their positions, a fairly disingenuous bit of rhetoric.) Biden also went down the man-made climate change road, which was pretty sad to watch.
Also, thanks for the reminder, sherarara: the words "Never Again" mean something very specific, and Palin's trading on them to attempt to convey some sort of emotional impact on a topic so distantly remote (the economy) is pretty low. It was fairly par for the course as far as the evening went, but...that's just unclassy.
Question: do you think Sarah Palin deliberately mispronounces 'nuclear'? I mean, seriously. HOW FUCKING HARD IS IT?!
How very unimpressive.
Joe Biden came off as more coherent, mostly sticking to the questions. But his years in the Senate left most of his responses as polished windbaggery: sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Sarah Palin came off as very confident. But she utterly failed even to attempt to answer fully half, and likely more, of the questions put to her, preferring to make bare assertions and party platitudes.
Both candidates utterly failed on most fronts to address the concerns put before them. They both did the gay marriage tapdance, not wanting to offend anyone while still trying to sound as though they supported what voters want. (I'd say that Biden did the worst on this, ending up selling out after saying some pretty positive things, whereas Palin didn't even try. Though, she did attempt to equate their positions, a fairly disingenuous bit of rhetoric.) Biden also went down the man-made climate change road, which was pretty sad to watch.
Also, thanks for the reminder, sherarara: the words "Never Again" mean something very specific, and Palin's trading on them to attempt to convey some sort of emotional impact on a topic so distantly remote (the economy) is pretty low. It was fairly par for the course as far as the evening went, but...that's just unclassy.
Question: do you think Sarah Palin deliberately mispronounces 'nuclear'? I mean, seriously. HOW FUCKING HARD IS IT?!