VP Buzzword Bingo

[sporkmetender]

Warning: Strong (mostly) Liberal Opinions Ahead. Do not read if you are not willing either to engage in reasoned debate on political matters or to agree to disagree.

Please, please, please tell me I'm not the only one who was strongly tempted to break something every time Biden or Palin said one of the following words/phrases:

• Change
• Reform
• Maverick (I'm looking at you, Gov. Wannabe-Fey)
• Kitchen table
• Fight, esp. fight for freedom
• Main Street
• The usual "will of the American people/the middle class" claptrap

My God. Anyway...I thought Palin did a nice job of stepping over  the (extremely low) bar she managed to set for herself with her previous public appearances. Seriusly, I think she's lucky she wasn't playing limbo, considering how law the bar was. I was impressed with her charisma and her way with words. In particular, I admire her for standing up for same-sex civil rights, which many Republicans are not willing to do. Of course, she and Biden both proceeded to stomp all over that by dragging religion into...as if we haven't heard those tired arguments a million times before. I also have to give her at least half a prop for admitting that global warming is largely a man-made phenomenon. She was then, of course, obliged to trot out the standard right-wing truism about cyclical climate change, which is at least somewhat scientifically accurate, but not nearly as relevant as they would like everyone to believe.

Unfortunately, that's about all she impressed me with. The content was missing. Any questions she didn't like, she deflected with references to her experiences as mayor/governor, mostly with energy. Honestly, I thought she had a great start, but as someone on CNN pointed out, she ran out of material about halfway through and started repeating herself. She definitely had the majority of the buzzword hits. She also seemed very coached. As another pundit said, her flashcards were very effective. Plus, I had to laugh when she talked about what a big state Alaska is. It's big in terms of land, certainly. But not in terms of population. There are cities--many cities--whose population's are higher than Alaska's.

Biden, on the other hand, started off slow, but seemed more sure of his facts and is obviously a great deal more experienced. I feel that he's a much better balance for Obama than Palin is for McCain, especially since, as we have been reminded ad nauseam, both Repulicans on the ticket are known for being "mavericks." Which essentially means, after considerable boiling down, that they're unpredictable. While that might be a good quality for one half of a presidential ticket to have (preferably the veep, imo), I don't think it looks good for both to be so insistent on their maverick status.

I don't really know much about Biden, to be quite honest, but I liked what I saw in the debate. He certainly had the gravitas Palin was lacking--in spades--but he lacked some of her charisma. I didn't feel that he really connected with the audience until he started talking about his wife passing away and being a single parent--that really resonated for me, even though I don't have kids. I thought Palin was smart to sidestep that one.

I guess my main concerns with the McCain/Palin ticket are:

• Abortion?!!!
• Palin's lack of experience/knowledge, which is especially relevant given McCain's age and health
• Lack of demonstrable divergence from Bush policies, especially in foreign affairs and economics
• McCain's longstanding support of deregulation
• "Nukular."  'Nuff said.

Agreement/dissent/commentary welcome, as long as it's polite. I'm all ears. Or, er, eyes, I guess, for this medium.