The VP Debate

The quick polls following the debate were strongly for Biden. I agree. It's still to be seen if that judgment shows up in later polls.

Palin only looked good because the expectations were so low. She ignored questions to talk about her own agenda, and since the agreed-upon rules did not allow Gwen Ifill to ask followup questions (as Jim Lehrer had), she got away with it.

Back when I was a working man, I attended a class in media relations at the University of South Carolina. A former reporter taught us to ignore television reporters' questions and tell the story we wanted told. Since the reporter had to produce something for the news cycle, that's what would be shown. Palin was obviously coached in the same approach. No matter that her answers were unresponsive -- the question/answer sequence is too long to be shown on network news programs, so it will be ignored for sound bites.

Biden went after McCain pretty effectively, especially in his "John McCain is no maverick" series.

There was one comment Palin made that still has me thinking, though:

Palin: Now you [i.e., Biden] said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that's not patriotic. Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you're not always the solution. In fact, too often you're the problem so, government, lessen the tax burden and on our families and get out of the way and let the private sector and our families grow and thrive and prosper.

I'm sorry, but that's nuts.

Update: Here's video of the "John McCain is no maverick" attack.