It is said that 70 million people watched the debate. This one memorable phrase is the high point of the entire debate, and probably we are going to hear references to it until election day. Who won the debate? Yet again, both parties claimed victory. In my opinion, there was no clear winner, with Biden going a bit ahead in the presentation part. I think both candidates exceeded expectations in any case.
Biden did not make any blunders and he was prepared to present the Obama platform well. Commentators point out his condescending smile, but really, his few broad smiles were nothing in this debate compared to face expressions of Palin who also had her own smirk when Biden was talking. Any questions of sexism here are unfounded and, in any case, it was Palin who tried to look more “know-it-all” than him.
People who believe Palin won are not wrong, yet there is an important underlying matter here that has to be pointed out. Palin exceeded expectations beyond measure and you could see she got a few good lessons in FP and in pronouncing the names of foreign leaders, and I think in that way she was better. Nevertheless, Biden was in the position of superiority before that, he did not activate his mental steamroller and was more reserved than Palin, but as a more experienced politician he did not have to go to such lengths to prove himself better. That is why even though Biden, I think, won the debate, it was Palin who was better in the light of expetations set for her. Certainly, people wanted to see a reprise of the Couric interview, which I attach here along with a more-strong-than-usual Cafferty comment, in case you have not seen it yet.
Palin’s appeal to independents was notorious throughout the debate, as she juggled words like “tolerance”, “equal rights” or “woman’s rights”. Even the “definition of marriage” thing she handled pretty well for a Republican, not to alienate too many voters. Biden, besides creating the Maverick phrase, also created probably the most intense single second of the debate when he choked up while telling how it is being a single dad, a moment probably immensly adding to his appeal with the, informally speaking, effect of “aww”.
The repetition of the “preconditions (for meeting leaders of Iran, etc.) issue” was simply dull and not necessary, as we had to listen to alot of it during the previous debate. Palin, notedly, called herself a maverick as well. Biden used his usual third person spiel. Both of them employed a range of interesting statistics, yet their effect most likely confused many viewers trying to reason who is right. In any case, the finale of the debate again belonged to Biden who literally “stole” the chieftly Republican “blessing the troops” thing, yet being the last in any debate often allows that person to exploit the things omitted by the former speaker.
