VP Debate Reactions: Part 1
by Contributing Writers
October 2, 2008
I think that Sarah Palin tied or even won the first half of the debate. However, in the second part of the debate, she seemed to lose steam and fall back to all familiar talking points. This was probably the combined result of the topic being foreign to her (pardon the pun), and the fact that you can only wind a tape cassette so tight with new information before it eventually doesn’t play anymore. Overall, Palin started out strong and faded, where Biden improved as the debate went along.
Did Palin beat expectations? Yes, but that was to be expected considering how low expectations were. Did Biden meet expectations and not blow it? Yes, Biden did without a doubt. Therefore, I think both candidates did as well as could be individually expected, and therefore the dynamics of this race won’t change much at all. And who wins in that scenario? The ticket with the big lead, of course, and right now that ticket is Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Kevin Van Dyke, Managing Editor
I watched the debate with three friends, with a variety of political opinions represented. I think the debate, similar to the first McCain/Obama debate, was evenly matched. Although Palin looked nervous initially, she seemed to find her footing and was able to answer the questions she was knowledgeable on and avoided those that she didn’t know how to answer. Biden’s frequent smiling looked, as was predicted, mildly condescending. However, he too found his footing, and in my opinion, thoroughly dominated the section on foreign policy. Palin was able to hold her own on energy issues, but I found her attempts at leveraging her “experience” as business owner, mayor, oil regulator, and governor in many areas to be a stretch at best. I thought Palin’s avoidance in discussing Pakistan and Afghanistan, in favor of Iraq and Israel, to be a fairly fatal flaw. I thought they both did an excellent job of looking at the camera and making their case for their potential bosses, rather than focusing solely on themselves.
Yerik Kaslow, Staff Writer
Well, I don’t think anyone “won” Thursday’s debate. McCain may pick up a few points in the polls from Palin’s showing, but both candidates showed up. I personally thought the Governess was a bit over the top with the winking and “gosh darn it” attitude and I would’ve liked it more had she injected some substance into the debate rather than coming back to how totally awesome Johnny Mac is.
The night’s biggest selling point? Biden’s response to the Governess’ “being a mom is so tough!” shtick. Biden is always quick with a quip, but his genuine response about being a single father after the death of his first wife, on a national stage, with millions of people watching, sold it for me. While Ms. Palin acted like the beauty queen turned politician that she is, Mr. Biden came off as a man who’s just trying to do the right thing for his country.
Christopher Swyers, Staff Writer
Biden won hands down. He was very specific on what an Obama/Biden administration would look like. Palin just showed she can memorize talking points. She is not ready for the world stage. If folks don’t see it, then they lack critical thinking skills.
I don’t think either won the debate, it was close and you could give the edge to Biden for a couple of reasons. however, let me say that I feel like both individuals gave out with ver distinct and differing agendas. Palin was to play the role she played at the RNC. She was suppose to try and relate the middle class and let people get to know her even more. Biden on the other hand was there to go after John McCain’s presidential platform, point out differences and show why his judgement has been off in everything from the war to the economy to passing clean energy bills.
Here is the tricky part, they both did that, but can you really give Palin credit for showing up. She executed her strategy very well, but it was like Biden was debating McCain, and very rarely even brought Palin into the conversation (smart I thought). In contrast, Palin try to point out the differences between Biden and Obama.
For these reasons I think the edge goes to Biden. He did a great job of explaining a number of policy ideas from the Obama ticket, and well, he had answers for every question.