Veep Debate - First Thoughts

[helzapoppn]

Biden backed the top of his ticket in substantive ways, and attacked McCain as the opposing VP candidate is supposed to do.

Palin was relentessly folksy and personable, but her attacks on Obama were rote, and her defenses of McCain consisted, every single time, of some combination of the words "change," "also" and "maverick."

She did a great job of

Comments

[losttoy]

Here is my word on Palin's performance last night ... rehersed.

I did notice she do better than on her interviews with Couric and Gibson because last night debate moderator did not press her on the questions she avoided. I found Palin often not answering the question that was asked her, but instead veering into a talking point. On subjects she did not have talking points, Palin wandered aimlessly with words like "Maverick" "America" "Country First" and "Progress" and at the same time saying absolutely nothing. Interviews like Couric or Gibson would press her to either answer the question directly or explain an actual plan past the rhetoric.

The problem is, there is still a good percentage of Americans that will buy into Palin's talking points, even though they do not have no substance behind them.

Oh, yes - highly rehearsed

[helzapoppn]

Frankly, the big loser in the whole thing was Gwen Ifill's reputation. Whether she was shaken by the well-planned "out-of-the-blue" attacks on her objectivity by the likes of Drudge, Rush and Fox News, or just felt hamstrung by the rules, she did a terrible job of moderating.

As for the attacks themselves -- EVERYONE should have seen this one coming. Ifill's Obama book was announced in August. The Noise Machine didn't kick into overdrive until Wednesday, not because they didn't know, but because they knew it might alter the debate's dynamic and make Palin look even more like the innocent victim of the Obama-leaning Emm-Ess-Emm "filter" apparatchiks.

She really should have never accepted the assignment. The appearance of conflict of interest is always going to trump someone's actual professional conduct. And, there are other African-American journalists who could have filled in.