Word Salad

I may have overestimated the ability of the public and the media to be wowed by Sarah Palin simply because she didn't go on stage and gnaw on the podium. Politico is pretty tough.

On at least ten occasions, Palin gave answers that were nonspecific, completely generic, pivoted away from the question at hand, or simply ignored it: on global warming, an Iraq exit strategy, Iran and Pakistan, Iranian diplomacy, Israel-Palestine (and a follow-up), the nuclear trigger, interventionism, Cheney's vice presidency and her own greatest weakness.

She was definitely nonresponsive and on message. Even when that message was confusing.

Palin's final quote was from Ronald Reagan, warning that without vigilance, "you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America when men were free."

In fact, Reagan was not warning about a general lack of vigilance about freedom, he was warning what would happen if Medicare was enacted.

And because she was spending so much time staying on script and basically defending her own intellect, Biden could shoot the gap with strong moments like this.



Ultimately, that debate isn't moving numbers. Both sides liked what they saw. But it is significant that Palin treated it like a student taking a test, while Biden treated it like a surrogate making an argument.

She also lied a lot.

...oh that's fucking funny.