Joe Biden won the debate handily. Not surprisingly, Sarah Palin did not fall on her face. She used two tactics to avoid total collapse. These two tactics will do lasting damage to her and the McCain/Palin ticket. First, she refused to answer any of the moderator's questions. At one point in the debate, she explicitly said she would not answer the questions posed her. Second, she fell back on talking points over and over again. The talking points served her well in the first part of the debate. But about 30 minutes in, the talking points became too repititious. The lack of substance behind her talking points became very apparent.
[Try the Sarah Palin Foreign Policy Hotline to chat with Sarah Palin the Eliza Program.]
Her refusal to answer questions will probably not sit well with the undecideds that had tuned in to watch the debate. These undecideds were probably looking for substantive answers to the important issues in this election. Instead, they got stump speech talking points from a coached candidate. Those who would be impressed by her stump speech already belong to her base. The rest of the electorate is probably looking for more than repititous talking points. They will leave the debate unimpressed by her.
On the rare occasions where Palin made assertions beyond her talking points, her responses were demonstably false. At one point, she challenged fact checkers to follow up on what was said in the debate. She will regret that. Furthermore, Palin failed to defend any of the attacks Joe Biden made on John McCain's record. Either she was unwilling or she was simply incapable. It is most likely the latter.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, showed his mastery of the subject matter. He looked serious and had gravitas. He completed his assigned task with precision. He destroyed John McCain's reocrd with clear statements and handy facts about McCain's record. He pushed the policy positions of the person at the top of his ticket. Whereas Palin got weaker as the debate went on, Biden became stronger - his atttacks became sharper and more focused and he started to connect with the audience. With Biden and Palin side by side on the stage, the contrast could not have been clearer. There was only one person on the stage who looked and sounded ready to be vice president. It was not Sarah Palin.
There were two moments in the debate that will resonate. The first was when Joe Biden talked about his wife and daugther's death and of nearly losing his sons in a car accident. With that, Joe Biden connected with the audience. He came into our living rooms and came into our kitchens. He connected in a way politicians rarely can. He opened up to the American public and we understood. It was a genuine moment that cut through the plastic persona of "hockey mom" that the Republicans have been trying to shape in their desperate play for the female vote. In one moment, Joe Biden separated the genuine from the myth. The debate was won.
The second moment was more ominious. Toward the end of the debate Sarah Palin asserted that she was for expanded powers for the office of the vice president. She openly tied herself to Dick Cheney. With that, she tied the McCain/Palin ticket to all the abuses of power, led by Dick Cheney, of the Bush Administration. The one connection John McCain has been avoiding like the plague, Sarah Palin in one moment of stupidity sealed with a flourish. It was a moment of arrogance and hubris. And Sarah Palin owned it tonight. Republicans can no longer run away from the Bush/Cheney administration. Sarah Palin made sure of it.
Sarah Palin's performance tonight may have caused some Republicans to come out of the fetal positions they had retreated to. But, she hurt her ticket with the voters that will matter in this election - the undecideds in the middle. She came accross as both extreme and hollow. She is George W Bush and Dick Cheney in one package. That is a losing image for the McCain/Palin ticket.
[Cross posted at my blog.]