Combs Spouts Off

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How I know Palin delivered

Posted by Richard on October 2, 2008

In my not-so-humble opinion, Palin won big. As Vodkapundit noted several times during his drunkblogging, Palin was especially good when she was "off-script." On energy in particular, she articulated McCain's position far better than McCain has. And she challenged Obama's and Biden's records much more effectively than McCain has.

But I realize it's hard for me to be objective about this, especially when I disliked almost everything Biden had to say. And I heard him say numerous things that were flat-out false.

So I'm looking for some objective standard by which to gauge the outcome, and I think I've got one. I watched on NBC. Before the debate, Brian Williams and his talking heads all agreed that this debate was an historic and highly important event.

After the debate, they all agreed that Palin did quite well, that neither candidate made any big mistakes — and that it really doesn't matter because no one cares about vice presidential debates, and it will be completely forgotten in a few days.

If that's the consensus spin of the mainstream media, then I'm pretty certain that Palin did really, really well. Because if she hadn't done well, you can be sure they'd still be talking about how important that debate was.

UPDATE: Was Ifill fair? Well, she wasn't as unfair as she might have been, and I suspect that's because of all the criticism that followed revelations about her upcoming pro-Obama book. But a lot of the questions she asked and the way she asked them made it easier for Biden to answer than for Palin. And she sure gave Biden the last word a lot.

UPDATE 2: According to Ace of Spades, I was right about Biden saying "numerous things that were flat-out false." He enumerated 14 specific instances. And he didn't even mention Biden's huge flubs regarding Article 1 of the Constitution (it's about the legislative branch, not the executive branch) and the role of the Vice President (the veep doesn't just preside over the Senate when there is a tie vote; that's just the only time the veep votes with the Senate).

UPDATE 3: There was one moment when Biden connected with me: near the end, when he recalled losing his wife and daughter (in an automobile accident) and worrying about whether one of his sons would survive. He became genuinely choked up, and my heart went out to him.

But that was the only moment during the debate that Biden seemed like a genuine human being instead of a Washington politico-bot.

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