VP debate...who did she think she was winking at?

"Dog gone it", I thought she was great.

yes casual. You don't speak to foreign dignitaries in such a tone and I wouldn't want her to represent the USA to such with that manner. I again find her to be a very good choice for something like Class President or Star Search Spokesmodel but no so much...VP and potential President of the USA.

But neither were wow...Biden was nice about many things...which I was hoping he wouldn't be. But I understand he has to be careful and not give her people a chance to play the "big mean man" card against him.

her folksy tone reminded me a lot of G.W..... "darn it" and "shout out" and perhaps MOST offensive "joe six pack".  Actually I can't decided if I'm more offended by that or by her constantly trying to bill herself as "Main Street" when she has lake front property with a SEA PLANE parked out front.  Please, if that's Main Street then were on EARTH am I????!!

I'm sorry, I'm a Palin hater and I'm absolutely not going to hide it.  Not here, nor anywhere else. She's about as poor a representative of a Woman as I've ever seen in my life, and I don't want her anywhere near the office of the VP. 

I suppose some may have found the winking to be cute or folksy.  I found it annoying, condescending and completely unprofessional.  Call me weird, but I don't want a cheerleader VP.  Heck, I don't even know any women her age who go around winking like that in extremely casual settings.

I thought Biden did well.  He fulfilled all his objectives--no gaffes, ignore her and focus on McCain.  He was certainly stronger on the facts (although as usual in politics they both played plenty fast and loose with the facts).

She probably helped herself a little among voters who were already leaning that way.  I doubt she convinced many undecideds to swing McCain's way.  The polls I've seen (CNN and CBS) of undecided voters have Biden as the clear winner.

Her comment about wanting to expand on the office of VP was certainly worrisome.  Cheney's done more than enough of that, thankyouverymuch.

 I hate to say this and I was so hoping for her to pull a blank stare like in her interviews, but I think she held her own much better than I had expected.  She seemed terribly nervous right at the beginning, but seemed to settle and handled herself pretty well.  I'm not impressed with the number of "cha"s at the end of her words, pronunciate correctly for god's sake woman, you want to be a world leader???  I think she was well prepped by debate camp out in Sedona and had well rehearsed talking points.  Where her weakness is is spontaneously answering unexpected policy questions, which shows how little she knows about McCain, his record, his overall plans, etc. 

Still not voting for them but she did better than I was expecting. 

Myra

He fulfilled all his objectives--no gaffes

I beg to differ.  However, the MSM is going to give him a pass on this one, just like they did when he said FDR went on television in 1929 (look it up if you don't understand).  Last night he said that Article I of the Constitution addresses the duties of the executive branch.  Well, Joe, sorry.  Article I is about the legislative branch.  You'd think a member of that very branch would know that.

Look, you guys already didn't like Palin, so you're not going to have anything good to say about her performance last night.  Me, I thought she hit a grand slam.  She was poised, confident, and knowledgable.  She spoke directly to the American people, while Biden spoke primarily to the moderator, which by the way, people were criticizing McCain for doing in his debate (read: double standard).  There were two times last night when Biden audibly sighed into his microphone while Palin was speaking, and that was very condescending.  To Biden's credit, my heart went out to him when he got choked up speaking about his child he wasn't sure was going to survive a car crash.  That was most definitely unscripted.

This women went toe to toe with a seasoned debater and held her own very well.  One thing I wish she had said, though, when Biden was asked if his and Obama's platform of raising taxes on the rich was class warfare, and he answered "Where I come from we call it fairness."  If it had been me up there, I'd have retorted, "Well, Joe, where I come from, we call it socialism."  Ooh, boy, would I have luuuuved to hear Palin say that!!!

aerial1313

This women went toe to toe with a seasoned debater and held her own very well. 

she openly refused to answer the moderator's questions.  That's not debating!!  That's her sticking to a script from which she could not deviate because she didn't have answers to the posed questions...

rwbeagles

yes casual. You don't speak to foreign dignitaries in such a tone and I wouldn't want her to represent the USA to such with that manner. I again find her to be a very good choice for something like Class President or Star Search Spokesmodel but no so much...VP and potential President of the USA.

I agree with rwbeagles. She was extremely casual and I do not want her meeting with other leaders of other countries (especially when right now we're not exactly looked up to in many countries) coming off so casual, winking and all. It was annoying. I felt like she was winking and smirking at the camera to make Biden look bad, like "wink-wink, we know better".

badrap

she openly refused to answer the moderator's questions.  That's not debating!!  That's her sticking to a script from which she could not deviate because she didn't have answers to the posed questions...

She did what they all do, only she stated she was going to do it.  Biden didn't answer the question about what parts of his platform he would have to wait on due to the current economic crisis.  But, I guess it's okay because he didn't say beforehand that he wasn't going to answer the question.

It is in the rules, BTW, that the candidates can answer in any way they want, they don't have to stick to what the moderator asks.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one, and that's ok, because THANK GOD we live in America where that's still allowed

To the point of not answering the questions, I am frankly disgusted by ALL the debaters.  I am not in support of ANY of these candidates, since all they want to do is pander to the pundits and not tell us a "DARN" (quoting Palin here) thing about what they actually intend to do.  To me, "debate" is this: 

Speaker 1 responds to moderator.  Speaker 2 responds to moderator and rebutts against speaker 1, if necessary.  Then Speaker 1 rebutts Speaker 2 and vice versa.  On to next issue.

None of the "debates" I've seen so far have even come close to this at all.  All they have been is "he-said, she-saids" without really digging into any issues at all. 

aerial1313

badrap

she openly refused to answer the moderator's questions.  That's not debating!!  That's her sticking to a script from which she could not deviate because she didn't have answers to the posed questions...

She did what they all do, only she stated she was going to do it.  Biden didn't answer the question about what parts of his platform he would have to wait on due to the current economic crisis.  But, I guess it's okay because he didn't say beforehand that he wasn't going to answer the question.

It is in the rules, BTW, that the candidates can answer in any way they want, they don't have to stick to what the moderator asks.

I completely agree and I thought she did fantastic. I wasn't hoping for a train wreck, so I wasn't disappointed.

badrap

All they have been is "he-said, she-saids"

Well, we'll agree on this!

They really don't have much time to actually state the cases for their positions on various topics because they spend too much time either running around in circles or bashing the other side.  Just say your position, defend it, then let the other person do the same.  Seems so easy, doesn't it?

 http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081003/us_time/whysomewomenhatesarahpalin

badrap

aerial1313

This women went toe to toe with a seasoned debater and held her own very well. 

she openly refused to answer the moderator's questions.  That's not debating!!  That's her sticking to a script from which she could not deviate because she didn't have answers to the posed questions...

Amen!

And, here's the thing, AGAIN.... she appealed to the people she already appeals to, annoyed/discouraged/insulted the people she already doesn't appeal to... and made no ground on the people in the middle who still are watching for the candidate who represents THEM and their ideals and views and hopes for this country.  Those people in the middle are what will decide the fate of the elections, I think.  Or at least have a good-sized chunk in it!