Last night’s one and only Vice Presidential Debate turned out to be quite compelling. It was particularly interesting to watch Sarah Palin, who was a stark contrast to Joe Biden in the debate. While he appeared more stuffy and pompous, she seemed confident, cool, and very “down to earth” (much like the “average hockey mom” she keeps labeling herself as). What are your thoughts on the debate? Who won and how did Palin do?
Palin Shows Her Teeth
– October 3, 2008
Last night’s one and only Vice Presidential Debate turned out to be quite compelling. It was particularly interesting to watch Sarah Palin, who was a stark contrast to Joe Biden in the debate. While he appeared more stuffy and pompous, she seemed confident, cool, and...
About the Author
David R. Dunham (Co-Founder) is a pastor, blogger, and avid fan of pop-culture. He has long been interested in the arts. He received honors for acting throughout high school and college, even being given a scholarship for musical theater to Youngstown State University. He is also an amateur musician, with one album, Get Well Soon, released in 2004. David has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and in Pre-Theology from Ohio University, and a Masters of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He currently teaches English Composition at Shawnee State University and serves as a staff pastor at Christ's Community Church. David and his wife Krista have two children, and they currently live in Portsmouth, OH. 
Sorry David, but I think that’s an unfair characterization. One could just as easily say Biden knew what he was talking about and seemed respectful, while Palin seemed nervous and artificial most of the time. In fact, I’m saying that now.
As far as content, both of them dodged the questions way too much and lied on occasions.
On content they tied, on style Biden barely won.
Richard Clarks last blog post..Punch-Out!!
I don’t like to think of these debates in terms of contests to be won, but if I have to, Biden did so by a fair margin. I agree with Richard in saying that Palin was nervous and artificial. She seemed mostly scripted, especially when she requested multiple times to answer a question other than the one she was asked.
I’d say they were both pretty poor. I could hardly stand to listen to Palin’s grammmar- it was like scratching a blackboard. I think I’m going to start having an allergic reaction to phrase repetition within a sentence and the word, “also.”
It’s actually more rare than you think for a politician to lie. If a lie is so blatent that Rich can pick it out, there’s really no value to lying in the first place. More often they get mixed up, forget something, or had a certain way of looking at the data (usually fairly skewed) that they can explain later.
One thing I did think was interesting was the strong focus on major policy areas. Moral issues are an area where Palin tends to be stronger, and I thought she beat Biden down fairly clearly on the one moral issue (homosexual marriage) that came up. Other than that, it was almost entirely policy (although I did miss about 20 minutes somewhere in the middle, so more may have come up then). Ifill did a pretty good job, but the question choices (though they seemed perfectly fair to me) didn’t play to Palin’s strengths nearly so much as Biden’s.
Another interesting tidbit was that Palin pretty easily beat Biden on the energy issue. It peaked my curiosity, because on the one issue she has a lot of experience with she was clearly stronger.
That said, Biden certainly won. Also (ack!), I’m about 95% confident I could have beaten either of these two in a debate, and thought it was generally a fairly sad showing.
Ben Bartletts last blog post..Conform to Obey
I thought Palin started out nervous, but she came into her own as the night went on. And as far as answering questions goes they did what every politician does at these events: use the question as a springboard from which they can launch into tirades about material they want to talk about. It was pretty much a standard debate, but I did feel that Palin showed some freshness to this whole political scene. whether you liked it or not is a different story, but it was at least different wasn’t it?