Last night, watching the Veep Debate, even I felt an urge to vote for Obama-Biden. Then I shook myself, and said, "No, David! It's all an illusion!"
Biden played his running mate attack dog role effectively. He tore into McCain and made the Arizona Senator look like a slug. According to Biden, McCain voted to cut money for the troops, voted twenty times against alternative fuels, voted against health coverage for kids, voted against the Violence Against Women Act, proposes to tax health care benefits, and would give $4 billion to oil companies that are already making $600 billion in profits. On top of all that, he opposed the regulation of Wall Street as he has opposed all regulation. (You see? The financial crisis is John McCain's fault!) And he wants to make the same mess of our health care system by getting the government out of that too!
Who would vote for a beast like that? Whereas, according to Biden, Barack Obama anticipated every major problem that we face today, including the credit crisis, and urged the right actions for each one. The guy's amazing! And he loves the middle class too.
Biden actually got angry at McCain's record, but there was no such alarm and outrage from the other side of the stage. He is not a Maverick, Biden said, then made a list of charges.
Palin took a few jabs at Obama. But whereas there is a mountain of dirt she could have dumped on him, she only kicked some dust on his shoes.
She spent a lot of her boasting of how ordinary she is and how well she relates to ordinary people. Biden buried that with his own testimony, ending with an almost tearful remembrance of sitting at the bedside of his child who was hovering between life and death. Furthermore, Palin struck me as too ordinary. She seemed like a nice lady you'd meet at the bowling alley. People expect a certain amount of polish in their Presidents and prospective Presidents.
McCain-Palin will not win simply with their boasts of being Mavericks and just like us. They need to expose the Obama illusion. The debates are the big opportunity because they get no free airtime with the press. Palin's job last night was to do the heavy lifting on that. She did not.
Friday, October 3, 2008
What Running Mates Do Joe Did
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4 comments:
I agree. While I feel that Palin did a much better job of representing herself to the public than she has in the past few weeks, I often got the feeling while watching the debate that Biden was dominating, even if he did refer to himself in the 3rd person.
I would read Rich Lowery and Jonah Goldberg and Fred Barnes on the debate. The fact is that Sarah was fantastic and Joe lost--big time.
Yes, I read Lowry, Morris & McGann, and other guy in the Post, and they were all pleased as a pig in a poke. I hear the Krauthammer liked it. I didn't see it. But conservatives tend to be more self-critical than liberals, so maybe they're seeing something I didn't. What the average American saw is another matter. But far be it from me to see things the way the average American sees it.
Peter Lawler at No Left Turns cites Slate's Mickey Kaus Peter's take which up my alley (or vice versa): "The remarks of Mickey Kaus Peter are, as usual, astute and fair and balanced. He says Sarah helped herself but in no way hurt Obama, which was, finally, her job. He also says that Biden seemed pretty authentic, which, I will add, he also seemed in his convention speech."
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