Well, the debate is over. And Joe Biden won it, though Sarah Palin defied expectations by speaking in complete sentences almost throughout the entire debate.
For the most part, the debate played out as I expected; Biden pulled his punches for the most part, knowing full well that the only way he could lose would be to turn Palin into a sympathetic figure. Palin was big on glittering generalities and short on specifics — we need to “reform education” and “stop Wall-Street greed” and “Maverick!” — but primarily because the format of the debate limited follow-up questions, she didn’t have a deer-in-the-headlights moment, just a few times when she began rambling a bit, and as Jim Henley notes, during those times she sounded most of all like George H.W. Bush talking about a thousand points of light and “message: I care.” A bit disjointed and weird, and nothing really helpul per se, but nothing catastrophic either.
Frankly, there was only one real zinger in the debate, and it wasn’t a zinger in the classic sense. The moment of the debate came after Sarah Palin touted her mom cred:
But it wasn’t just that experience tapped into [sic], it was my connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills? About times and Todd and our marriage in our past where we didn’t have health insurance and we know what other Americans are going through as they sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out how are they going to pay out-of-pocket for health care? We’ve been there also so that connection was important.
Biden responded from the heart:
Look, I understand what it’s like to be a single parent. When my wife and daughter died and my two sons were gravely injured, I understand what it’s like as a parent to wonder what it’s like if your kid’s going to make it.
I understand what it’s like to sit around the kitchen table with a father who says, “I’ve got to leave, champ, because there’s no jobs here. I got to head down to Wilmington. And when we get enough money, honey, we’ll bring you down.”
I understand what it’s like. I’m much better off than almost all Americans now. I get a good salary with the United States Senate. I live in a beautiful house that’s my total investment that I have. So I — I am much better off now.
But the notion that somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise two kids alone, I don’t know what it’s like to have a child you’re not sure is going to — is going to make it — I understand.
I understand, as well as, with all due respect, the governor or anybody else, what it’s like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They’re looking for help. They’re looking for help. They’re not looking for more of the same.
It was a devastating moment, because it was true. At age 29, just after the unbelievable professional triumph of being elected to the Senate, Biden went through what any parent would readily identify as the most awful experience possible, losing his daughter and wife in a car accident, having his two sons hospitalized from the same accident. He was sworn in at a hospital in Delaware, and he seriously considered resigning his Senate seat, and was convinced to stay by then-Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr., DFL-Minn., who assured Biden that his colleagues would help him with his loss.
Biden choked up in that moment, as I think one would forever. He wasn’t grandstanding, and he wasn’t attacking Palin, he was simply making a point: that dads, too, know about household fears. That just as Palin is not disqualified from talking about the statehouse just because she’s a woman, Biden is not disqualified from talking about his home life just because he’s a man. It was, ironically, the most feminist moment of the debate.
Who won the debate? Well, early returns suggest Biden did, and I think that’s probably true. Palin didn’t hurt the McCain campaign, and maybe helped rehabilitate her chances for 2012, but at this point, with the clock ticking, the McCain campaign can’t simply get through the day unmolested. They need to start making up ground. I doubt this debate will move the needle much. But if it does, it will be primarily because Biden was able to land some sharp jabs at McCain without coming across as arrogant — indeed, while coming across as very, very human.
Something appears to have gone terribly wrong with the formatting of this post; I’m viewing it on Firefox 3, but the formatting makes it very difficult to read anything past “Biden responded from the heart:”.
Think that fixed it, but let us know if it doesn’t.
I concur the formatting for this post was horrific with firefox but I found it compelling so I struggled through it. Yes the moment when Biden got emotional was the most feminist moment of the debate and it touched me deeply. It seemed to me like she was trying to imply that he could not understand because he was a man. I guess she forgot his personal history. Every time I hear about what happened to him and witness his dedication to his children I gain even more respect for him as a man. I think his commentary proves that it is manly love and devote yourself to your children. When men invest in parenting not only do the have a richer life experience but their children benefit so much. He reminds me of my unhusband in that way. Without out sons my unhusband would be lost. There is not a day that he does not swell with pride over his boys and that is how all fathers should be.
I expect Biden’s response to resonate with a lot of fathers who would never admit as much, due to ingrained ideas about masculine ‘toughness’. It may well help Obama among white men (his worst demographic), and if so, score one for the good guys because it’d be really nice to say that for once, heartfelt love was a winner politically. <3
Good wrap-up, Jeff, thank you. I was surprised by Biden’s performance, more human, passionate-but-restrained, and SHARP throughout than I expected. He got wonkish with numbers early on, which impressed me, but it might’ve turned off a lot of those folks who don’t like to feel they’re being talked down to by people who can actually explain how they would, you know, run the country. Biden clearly won the “debate,” but I don’t know yet if Palin won the popularity contest.
This isn’t from the debate, but I just noticed it,
In her Couric interview, Palin said in avoiding an answer to the “what’s a Supreme Court decision with which you disagree” question,
But, you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a vice president, if I’m so privileged to serve, wouldn’t be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.
Republicans, looking for something to cheer about in the interview, pointed to that as a sign that Palin has the right attitude and understanding about the courts. Yet Palin has shown that she doesn’t take such a passive attitude about the relationship of the executive to the judiciary:
Palin is well aware of the awesome power of the courts. That’s why, when the Alaska Supreme Court struck down a controversial abortion restriction last year by a 3-2 margin, she excoriated them for “legislating from the bench,” named a new justice to the court and pushed for the passage of an even harsher version of the same law, explicitly intended—said its sponsor—”to overturn [the Alaska Supreme Court].” Governor Palin understands the fundamental tediousness of constitutional checks and balances. She knows that if a court gets it wrong, you just build a better court.
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Kelo was the first one that came to my mind. It seemed rather amazing to me that someone could read the 5th Amendment, see “… nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”, and figure that it meant that the government could take property from one private owner and give it to another private owner for them to operate at private profit.
Overall Palin’s performance at the VP Debate was not up to par, and that is better than expected because with her track record I was suprised she didn’t postpone the answers and just blatantly say she didn’t know. Which would have been acceptable because just about everyone knows by now that she really doesn’t know much of anything besides Alaska and Energy. Which might I add was quite disturbing last night as she answered almost every question with some sort of rambled about answering involving either Alaska or Energy or both.
I’m not sure that Palin wants to bash Kelo, given that:
a) Kelo was not the first case to say that property could be taken from one private owner who was justly compensated and given to another private owner. See Berman v. Parker (taking property from a department store owner and giving it to a developer) and Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff (taking property from some landowners literally for redistribution to new landowners). Kelo’s innovation was not so much in private-to-private forced transfers, but in the concept of what was deemed a “blighted” area and that a better tax base was a public purpose.
b) The Wasilla Sports Complex was Palin’s big legacy as mayor and required the use of eminent domain. I don’t know if she’s ready to defend the proposition that local governments can take private property for a hockey rink that will provide fun in winter, but not for a large business complex that will provide jobs to a struggling community.
It’s surprising Sarah’s handlers didn’t prep her with a comment or a comeback if Biden referred to the tragic accident in his past.
Or maybe they actually had the decency to realize there are just some things that destroy all potential talking points.
Kelo would have been a good one, but frankly, why not throw out Dredd Scott? I mean, everybody disagrees with Dredd Scott, and it has the bonus feature of being a dogwhistle call to the anti-choice movement. Even Dubya came up with that one.
The fact is that Palin couldn’t name a case other than Roe because she doesn’t know of any. That’s not a crime, but it should be disqualifying for a governor, much less a vice president.
She didn’t say Dred Scott because she is not a pro-lifer who has thought deeply about it and debated the issue with intelligent pro-choicers. She’s a pro-lifer simply because a) she’s religious; b) she became a politician in an increasingly social conservative area; c) she likes babies. Which are perfectly good reasons to oppose abortion (a and c apply to my pro-life mother and sister), but won’t serve you well in explaining why you believe simultaneously that Roe was wrong, there’s a Constitutional right to privacy and that states should decide the legality of abortion. (Actually, the proper follow up to Palin’s homage to federalism would have been to ask, “What do you think of Congress’s passing federal abortion legislation, like the ‘partial birth’ abortion ban?”)
Times each candidate used the words, “United States,” during the debate:
Palin: 1
Biden: 16
That may be the first time I’ve heard her say the words, “United States.” Weird.
The “United States” may be a contested political issue in her household.
Has anyone else noticed an overlap between rising right wing support of Gov. Palin and how badly she does? Her debate performance clearly qualifies her to read note cards. I mean, she did great on that!
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