The Debate

It wouldn't be right not to post something on last night's VP debate. I listened to it on the radio, and so was spared all the Palin winking and smiling. I did a little "palin-bingo" to see how many times I'd hear certain words. I heard "hockey mom" once and was interested that she chose a soccer field for her little folksy thing about asking the average American if they were better off now than before. I stopped counting "maverick" after 6 times. That schtick is so worn out! I was thrilled when after the last time, Joe Biden stepped in with his "spare me" tirade. "John McCain has never been a 'maverick' on the really important issues." And he was able to make a huge list of years of Senate experience working with McCain. His timing for that was perfect. He waited until the end when she had leaned on it once to many times. This allowed him to show a little impatience, which I thought was effective.

Biden was careful to shoot over Palin's head and aim his attacks at McCain. I think he did a great job, although there were times when I felt he got a little long winded.

I came away with the impression that Palin's "folksiness" was really demonstrative of a lack of education. I work in the language field, so poor grammar kills me. And like the average voter, I didn't go watch clips from her past debates in Alaska. I hear that in those debates, she sounded more educated and fluent on the issues. And I have heard that over coffee with her equally fluent opponent in Alaska she said something to the effect of , "Why do you talk professional? People don't' want to hear that." So how much of her bad grammar and folksiness is calculated? Taking a page from Bush's book? That's not change.

That said, she didn't mess up. She came across as a good little student who memorized her lines well and she did a good job avoiding answering most of the questions put to her.

Oh, and a note to all those Republicans out there: Trying to help Palin by painting Gwen Ifle as biased is such bad form . . . no one buys that crap.