Blogging the VP Debate

Here was the high point:
Biden says that China builds some number of coal plants per month,and yet John McCain thinks the only answer is Drill Drill Drill.
Its “Drill Baby Drill,” she corrects him.

And Sarah said we need to look at reality from Main Street, Wasilla. I don’t know if everyone has been reading the columns from LA Times, but see the video from columnst Steve Lopez who visits the hometown.

Here is my summary:
Biden led off, noting how disastrous the last 8 years of the Bush administration have been for the economy.
Then, in a colorful image Sarah suggested that, Joe Six Pack needs to get together with the hocky moms Sarah said to Stop Greed and Corruption on Wall Street, and “We need to demand strict oversight.” She said this more than once, and it sure sounds odd—is “Strict oversight” the same as regulation? Since when do republicans support regulation?
Then Sarah got back to cutting taxes to create jobs. She seems to forget that the 8 years of Bush tax cuts did not create jobs. Except maybe in Iraq.
Sarah claimed that Obama voted to increase taxes 49 times….is that true? Biden- charges that it is exactly not true. Using the standard that the Gov. uses, he says, McCain voted to raise taxes 449 times.
Gov. Palin will not answer on issue whether McCain supports regulation. She does brag about reducing taxes in Alaska. Of course, Alaska has a huge budget surplus this year, and Alaskans generally pay no state taxes. I thought that was disingenuous.
Then Gwen Iffil asked what will you cut, to accommodate the latest bailout?, the question that Jim Lehrer asked the candidates, and which they did not answer.
This time, Biden does better that Obama did when he was asked the question, saying that we can’t cut things like job creation. Sarah comes up with nothing that they had on the table that would now be curtailed. And John McCain has not made any promises that he will not be able to keep. We thought this was a real misstatement, or misunderstanding of the question, perhaps intentionally.
Then Palin answered a question, trying to get to the idea that “energy independence is the key to America’s future,” but on the way there, she sure took a lot of detours, I don’t even know what she was trying to say.
Then on global warming, Palin said that there are real changes, but there are also cyclical changes, “I don’t want to argue about causes, but we need to look at what we are going to do about it.” She claims that she was the first governor to establish a climate change sub-cabinet. Then she says that we need to establish energy independence for that reason also. She does want to conserve fuel, and clean up the planet.
Biden here manages to draw a clear distinction, saying warming is clearly man-made- if you don’t understand the cause, it’s impossible to come up with a solution. But as Biden points out, McCain has voted against alternative energy 20 times.
And, they definitely disagree about the war. When Biden claims that the Bush Administration has been a diplomatic failure, Palin says that the Bush administration has not been an abject failure. And then she calls for “an end to the blame game,” too much looking backwards, we will learn from past mistakes, and uses this to segue back to McCain platitudes about maverick, change is coming, etc. etc. She used this tactic repeatedly, to distance McCain-Palin from Bush.
But, said Biden, past is prologue. I haven’t heard anything he said, about how McCain’s policies will be any different from Bush. We, Obama-Biden will make significant change so that we will be the most respected nation in the world.
When Biden tried to draw a distinction, saying that he had voted for the resolution authorizing the war, but had actually opposed going to war, Sarah really made fun of him, “It’s so obvious that I am a Washington Outsider. You voted for, it was a war resolution, but now you say that you are against it. You supported McCain’s strategies.”
I am sure that those who supported Palin before will have their support reinforced. And she definitely projected appealing personae. But I doubt she convinced many democrats, Biden got in a number of points of difference, on funding for health care, education, and especially ending the war. McCain voted against S-CHIP, the violence against women act. McCain has not supported any funding for education, not early childhood, not funds for states to implement NCLB.
Palin on the other hand, unapologetically supports the idea of American exceptionalism, America as the shining city on the hill, an example to the rest of the world, a beacon of freedom, etc. etc. It’s a kind of empty patriotism, with a closing dig at mainstream media.
Biden closes closer to home: Respect, honesty, work hard, you can accomplish anything, we are running to reestablish that certitude for everyone.