Is Anybody watching the VP debate?

[Spectre General]

I swear to God I think Sarah Palin is gonna start juggling or singing showtunes.

Also, if I hear the word "Maverick" one more time I'm gonna start playing the Top Gun theme.

-------------------------------------------------
What is love after all
but occasional steps
of a dance.........
.......In a trance?

[birdmadgirl]

This is pretty funny:

http://www.holytaco.com/details/?image- ... book-2.jpg

(Might have to copy and paste the link into your browser window. It's pretty long.)

[Spit]

If she hasn't gotten all the hockey mom's siding with her before the debate ,by-golly, she has now.

[NuWaveRx]

I actually watched most of it. I'm not sure if the result is going to change anyone whose mind is already made up. Palin did not embarass herself, but (IMO) Biden clearly was the more knowledgable debater who effectively used his experience in the Senate to his advantage.

On another note, just remember the last time we elected a ticket whose candidate could not pronounce the word "nuclear"

That alone cinches it for me[:o)][;)]

[Frau_Blucher]

I thought the moderation was awful. Too many questions where both candidates could spit up pre-planned sound bites. I don't want to hear that McCain is just Bush 2, and I don't want to hear that Obama voted to raise taxes 94 times. It says fucking nothing. It reveals nothing about what they know or are capable of thinking about. If this were a job interview (which it is!), these questions would have been straight out of some Interviewing For Dummies book - what are your strengths, what are your weakneses, describe a success, blah, blah, blah. Nothing fucking inciteful to illicit any thoughtful discourse. When I interview, I want to see how people think...hell, THAT they have thought. "What do you think about that, why, what next, how, how else, what else, who else, what next again"...peel those layers back. Sometimes you find there's nothing there...more often than not in fact. Zero fucking depth to this exchange. It let a mushmouth and a bumpkin regurgitate trained lines.

[British]

I was enjoying looking at her in those nice black shiny pumps, but I digress. This NBC comedy isn't as good as the other comedies at the usual timeslot.

Sadly, Biden has made some decisions I don't agree with(which I can't name offhand).

[zill]

All of Palin's "dawgonit" type remarks were sickening. I didn't watch enough to hear her say "golly gee whiz". But I still think she's hot.

Biden seems like too much of an old style politician to be spewing about change - he should leave that for the Obaminator.

One part I watched that I don't understand is how Biden can say he fully supports protecting same-sex benefits, etc., but at the same time doesn't support the notion of a same-sex marriage. I haven't thought enough about to understand how Americans reconcile these points of view. We now have same-sex marriages in British Columbia and guess what? Our society didn't collapse!

[NuWaveRx]

[quote][i]Originally posted by zill[/i]
<br>One part I watched that I don't understand is how Biden can say he fully supports protecting same-sex benefits, etc., but at the same time doesn't support the notion of a same-sex marriage.
[/quote]

I'll give Palin credit for capitalizing on Biden's mistake here. His point (barely discernable above his bluster) was that the term "Marriage" from a religious point of view should be defined within the context of that religion (as long as consenting adults are involved), whereas "Marriage" from a legal/civil standpoint should mean the same thing for same-sex couples as non-same sex couples.

I think from a more global view the "youbetcha" type of sophistry Palin pulled last night will probably do more harm than good. I think a lot of people last night and today were seeing in their mind's eye Palin in the Oval Office: "You tell that nasty ol'Dickens Putin to mind his Ps and Qs or I'll push this button here, and wipe him from the face 'o God's green earth, dontchaknow.."

Blir talked about real questions asked by the moderator--and I agree this certainly seemed to be a debate with some of the laxist rules I've ever seen. Certainly an actual collegic level debate would never stand for the constant rebuttals, and not answering directed questions. Still, just looking at the curricula vitae of the two parties involved--if this was a job interview, I'm not sure Palin should have made it past HR.

[djcraig]

[quote][i]Originally posted by zill[/i]
<br> We now have same-sex marriages in British Columbia and guess what? Our society didn't collapse!
[/quote]

How could you tell- you live in Canada after all!

There WAS a real lack of depth in the debate. Even with the possibility of someone crashing and burning, it didn't hold my interest for long. Just a bunch of regurgitating platitudes.

I did enjoy the camera shots of Palin from behind though...



<a href="http://www.djcraig.net/los_angeles_dj">DJ Craig</a>

[Spectre General]

I do have to agree that it basically looked like Palin was reading a pre-prepared speech instead of actually answering the questions. At least three times she flatly ignored the question asked and harped on about some other thing in between winking at the camera, leaning on the podium and using northern colloquialisms. Additionally I heard virtually nothing from either candidate that wasn't already covered in the first debate. None of the four debaters thus far have really talked about why they should be elected, instead they spend more time on why the other one shouldn't be.

So far the debates look like this:

Obama Camp: "Hey McCain, you're just George Bush 2 (3?)"
McCain Camp: "Oh yeah, well you're a Democrat!"
repeat x infinity.

Though I have to say, though I've always been an independent, this time around I can't even so much as fathom [b]anyone[/b] voting for the Republicans. Especially when the Republican's best attack is essentially "You're not a Republican." They aren't going to pick up any swing votes that way. Except of course the "hockey moms," all 400 of them.

-------------------------------------------------
What is love after all
but occasional steps
of a dance.........
.......In a trance?

[Frau_Blucher]

Bang on to the last three posts. It's a complete fucking myth that there even was a "debate". Fucking joke. Feed shit to the cattle and expect them to just swallow it.

[KYYX4ever]

[i]"Palin beat the odds, but Biden beat Palin.[/i]" was what I heard one commentator say.

I agree with most of you guys. She didn't crash and burn or start drooling, so maybe the GOP can declare her the victor. But it was obvious that she gave a whole bunch of canned, prepared answers that meant nothing. No substance, no depth. But actually, the whole debate was like that. It was all very facile, with little depth. The moderator could have done a better job of asking them to clarify or dig a little deeper. Biden did as expected. But golly gee, Palin's winking and flirting routine was annoying as hell, and insulting. I do not want a hockey mom, an "average Joe Six-pack mom" as VP ! I want a leader !

[marie3]

I don't know, the debate was really kind of Stepford Wife-ish. Sarah Palin looking straight into the camera was very strange. She probably was hoping her head wouldn't pop off after all the cramming she has done the past couple of weeks. Do we really want a vice president who has to "study" for the big test? This is screwed up big time. The questions were the same old same old. I was hoping for much more.

[WolverineSyr]

Well doncha' know that L'il lady sure knew her stuff, you betcha her noggin was burstin with all that educated cypherin and talkin stuff, by golly!

What disturbs me is the apparent elitism this woman has while trying to be "one of us," or some idealized version of what she think America will buy. The fact that she considers herself a "hockey mom," or that her husband is a "Joe Sixpack" only tells me she has no clue what those things really are. Where I come from, neither of them are necessarily a compliment.

A hockey mom (or soccer or whatever,) indicates an affluent suburban woman who lives through her over-privileged kids and doesn't have the time or smarts to think about bigger issues, is only interested in the status quo, and needs someone "just like her" (but not really) to make big decisions...but not the biggest ones - that should be left to the man (McCain.)

Joe Sixpack has always meant some uneducated, working class laborer with no money who has no refined tastes and the narrowest of opinions. He's too dense to think of buying a case of beer to last a few days and rather buys a sixpack every night to maintain his alcoholism. Does anyone really want to identify themselves that way?

In using these stupid charactures and thinking they're going to appeal to the entire country shows how out of touch she is, how elitist she is and I know we're all doomed because apparently it worked.

[SallyLightfoot]

Dave Letterman has been mining comedy gold with Palin's debate footage:
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