The Debate: From surreal to so real
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It was surreal in St.Louis this week for the Vice Presidential debate. The pomp, the circumstance, the political celebrities all added to a twenty four hour experience that any political lover would die for.
On early Thursday morning I found myself a few feet away from Bob Scheaffer the CBS political guru. Moments later, former Senator and Law and Order star Fred Thompson strolled into the room where CBS was doing their early morning show.
From there it was a whirlwind of interviews with John Roberts at CNN, Andrea Mitchell at NBC, Rick Sanchez at CNN and Sheppard Smith at Fox News. The media tents were lined up in the quad on a brilliant sunny day at Washington University, with students waving political signs and personal messages including one that read "Mom & Dad, I need a bailout like Wall Street".
In every interview they'd asked the same questions; what advice would you give Joe Biden? Be respectful, don't patronize and don't try and show she isn't ready for prime time or you'll look like a bully I'd say.
What advice would you give Sarah Palin? Stay on message and go on the offensive against Obama while being a strong advocate for McCain I'd answer.
Judging from the debates, both candidates did exactly what they needed to do.
Palin needed to put the horrible Katie Couric interviews behind her, shore up her conservative supporters and show some of that gusto that brought her rave reviews after her RNC speech during the Republican Convention; she accomplished that.
Biden needed to show he could answer a question with brevity and sincerity without seeming patronizing; he accomplished that as well.
If the debate had a requirement for both candidates, it was the old doctor's oath of first do no harm. Both candidates did what they needed to do while not harming the top of the ticket.
While Biden clearly won, (both over night polls showed he won by a significant margin) Palin also won by exceeding expectations even though by all accounts they were pretty low going into the debate.
During the debate, Palin showed Biden why many of her opponents before him walked off stage feeling like they'd just spent the last ninety minutes watching Palin tap dance.
Palin lived up to her reputation of sticking to talking points even when the talking points were in no way related to the question asked by the moderator. She again resurrected her signature slogans of a new face and new energy while once more proving her magical ability to sell a complete lack of logic to the public.
When moderator Gwen Ifill asked Palin to comment on the sub-prime mortgage mess impacting Americans, Palin launched into a bit about energy. "That is not so, but because that's just a quick answer, I want to talk about, again, my record on energy versus your ticket's energy ticket, also."
When asked by Ifill what a good exit strategy from Iraq would look like Palin responded by complimenting the surge: "I am very thankful that we do have a good plan..I am thankful that that is part of the plan implemented under a great American hero, Gen. Petraeus, and pushed hard by another great American, Sen. John McCain."
In fact from the start Palin put both Ifill and Biden on notice that she might not answer their questions if it didn't suit her fancy;
"And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk to the American people."
Early in the debate Palin argued that it was greedy Wall Street that created the economic mess the country finds itself in and promised tighter regulations to combat the abuses, "We need to make sure that we demand from the federal government strict oversight of those entities in charge of our investments and our savings." Minutes later she said government needed to get out the way and let the economy grow.
First Palin said that Americans had a hand in the financial troubles by taking on too much debt; "don't live outside of our means. We need to make sure that as individuals we're taking personal responsibility through all of this." Then she turned around and said the American consumers were the victims in the financial meltdown, "It's not the American peoples fault that the economy is hurting like it is."
But this was classic Palin. She offered virtually no specifics on the economy or other issues, she described herself and McCain as mavericks over and over again and repeated the same empty sound bites about reforming government and putting it back into the hands of the people. It was 2006 all over again.
However, calling yourself a maverick six times in a ninety minute debate doesn't make you a maverick, it makes you a narcissist.
As an Alaskan, and someone who has watched her administration closely her words didn't reconcile with her history.
During the debate she stated "And we're building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline which is North America's largest and most you expensive infrastructure project ever to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets."
Not only is this not true, but she's been corrected on this misleading statement a number of times by her own staff as well as the press. As it stands today, Palin's pipeline plan is a pipeline to nowhere.
At one point she scolded Biden for talking about the Bush administration; "Americans are going to say, "Enough is enough with your ticket," on constantly looking backwards, and pointing fingers, and doing the blame game."
But in 2006, Palin got elected by demonizing and pointing fingers at her unpopular predecessor Frank Murkowski.
Today she continues to try and score points by looking backwards like bringing up the jet Murkowski bought, claiming to have broken up an imaginary oil monopoly and saying she took on the good old boys, even though most of those same good old boys are alive and well, endorsing her and supporting her campaign.
However, Biden was not without a mistake or two as well. His claim that McCain's health care plan would put thousands into insurance companies pockets... of course it would, who else would you pay your premiums to?
Biden was also misleading on his support for clean coal. Biden said he has "always" supported clean coal. He said "a comment made at a rope line was taken out of context" by John McCain's campaign.
In a video, recorded at the beginning of Biden's bus trip across Ohio last week, he is seen responding to a question about why the campaign is supporting clean coal. "We're not supporting clean coal," he says. "Guess what? China is building two every week, two dirty coal plants. And it's polluting the United States, it's causing people to die."
But none of this matters.
The real focus over the next four weeks will be on the Presidential candidates who are scheduled to debate again this Tuesday, October 7.
In a few days this debate will be long forgotten and it will have no impact on the end result of the election. The fight now is between McCain and Obama, with polls showing that Obama is pulling away in key swing states as a result of the faltering economy.
Increasingly skittish employers chopped payrolls 159,000 jobs — more than double the cuts made just one month before. It was the ninth straight month of job losses that total 760,000 jobs disappearing so far this year.
The Labor Department's report, released Friday, also showed that the nation's unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, up sharply from 4.7 percent a year ago. Over the last year, the number of unemployed people has risen by 2.2 million to 9.5 million.
Experts say the worst is not over: "We are likely to see more months of job losses before conditions turn around," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors in an Associated Press interview.
From surreal to so real.
(AP Photo)
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