I try not to do this very often.  There are enough “pundits” in the world, and it’s not one of my aspirations to become another.  In fact, the ones I heard right after the debate, furiously spinning things to find a positive take on the debate for Sarah Palin, sickened me nearly as much as the debate itself.

Cute phrases and crap read off of note cards should not qualify one to be vice president.  That’s what we got last night.  Biden, for all his faults, and for all the fact that it’s exactly because he DOES know how things have always worked in Washington that he’s a problem, at least knew what he was talking about.  Why would Palin come in and try to argue with the man about what has happened in the Senate?  Even if she’d had MONTHS instead of weeks to study up on it, there’s no way she could do anything but read whatever they gave her, and it was so often flawed that she began to look silly.

She said Maverick more times than McCain did in his own debate.

While it’s not really an important point, the woman can’t say the word nuclear.

While she’s all about “winning” in Iraq, if her definition of winning matches what she said the “surge” could do in Afghanistan then we’ll be there forever.  She seems to believe we will terraform the Arab nations into little versions of home.  Democratic governments, run by the people, who will embrace hockey and Saturday morning cartoons.  She’s horribly naive.  Maybe while talking about Afghanistan she could explain why, if that is where the terrorists are, why we quit fighting there and invaded Iraq in search of non-extant weapons of mass destruction.  Probably, though, she could not.

Biden made some pretty good points.  Maverick McCain might be, but currently not on any subject that matters.  He’s party line on the things that are really killing us right now, Iraq and the Economy come directly to mind.

The worst thing about these debates is that the candidates so seldom address the question that is actually asked.  Neither of them answered the first one, which was whether or not the voting up, and then down of the 700 Billion dollar bailout was a high, or low spot for congress.  I thought maybe Biden would answer it, but he got distracted trying to get out his canned speech.

A telling point was when a question Palin didn’t know the answer to was asked, and she pretty much said (paraphrased) I’m not gonna answer that — and then went on to read her notes on energy again.

Her entire view of energy independence (according to the speech) revolves around drilling for domestic oil.  Not one mention of alternative fuels, natural gas, or anything else.  Drill baby Drill.  She actually freaking SAID THAT.  Sure, she attributed it to others, but she managed to get that, the “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” and the “Joe sixpack” into her little speeches.

One last note - same sex marriage.

Biden got cornered, and in the end would not sanction same sex marriage - but he did actually say that what the civil union is called should be left to individuals and their faith - but that all civil unions, no matter what genders are involved, should be treated equally by the law.  Palin did NOT agree.  She agreed that she did not sanction same sex marriage, but when pressed to say she agreed that all civil unions should be treated equally, she pressed her over-glossed lips together and remained silent.

She didn’t say she didn’t agree, but make no mistake - of the two - only one believes that a gay couple should have the same legal rights as a heterosexual couple, and only one of them SAID that.

I’ll end this with the one question I’d have loved to hear asked of Governor Palin …

Science tells us that it takes millions of years for organic material, collected beneath the surface of the Earth, to become oil - a substance she claims to be an expert on.  If this is so…where did it come from if the planet is only 6,000 years old?

In other words - I’m not comfortable with a woman a “heartbeat from the Presidency” who seriously believes that man co-existed with dinosaurs or that the world is less than a million years old.  You want bi-partisanship?  How are you going to get that from someone who can’t even be swayed by common sense?

Enough!  On to the day, and to writing.

-DNW

Technorati Tags: biden, debate, Maverick, McCain, Obabama, palen, say it ain’t so, vice president, vp

Posted on 10/3/08, 4:41 AM
in: Uncategorized
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