The Veeps, and more on Sarah

Did you see the VP debate last night? My take on it is this:

I wasn't ever interested in voting for Joe Biden in the primaries. My guy was Edwards all the way – in 2004 and in 08. But as the VP nominee, I’m happy with him. He has the foreign policy experience that Obama lacks. Yes, he's been around forever in Washington, but frankly, who hasn't? Palin? Yeah, but... Well, simply put, she scares the living daylights out of me. Karen S has had a couple of interesting discussions on this.

Last night... well, what struck me was that although Palin didn't make any horrific blunders ala her Katie Couric interview, she did not answer a single question that was asked of her. Not one. In fact, she went out of her way to say that she wasn’t going to answer the question that the moderator or Biden or even the media might like her to answer, and then proceeded to discuss one of the three talking points that she obviously felt she knew well: energy, Iraq, and McCain as a maverick. I became sick and tired of hearing those 3 talking points and wanted to hear her answer a question that was actually asked of her.

I was equally struck that Biden answered every single question with a direct, specific answer before he moved on to tie each of his responses to either his position, Obama's position, or McCain’s ‘failed’ position. Would that both presidential candidates would have done the same in their debate last week, or could do the same next week. Perhaps they should look at Biden's approval numbers after last night, and have a lessons learned meeting. Biden also stuck it to Palin when she obviously thought she had the market cornered on knowing what people talk about ‘around the kitchen table’. His eloquent and heartfelt explanation of being a single parent after his wife and child were killed and his other two children critically injured was very touching, and got his point across. In fact, several times, he got his point across that Palin had no idea what she was talking about without ever actually calling her on it. I wonder it the majority of Americans picked up on that.

And Palin’s folksy ‘don’t ya know’ talk began to really get on my nerves after a while. Please. You cannot tell me that this is not an affect for the American audience to make her ‘one of the girls’. If I heard the word ‘ya’ instead of ‘you’ one more time I thought I was going to scream. And I had almost resigned myself to the fact that whomever our next president was, their entire ticket would know how to pronounce NUCLEAR. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. Of the 4 candidates, only Palin seems to fall into the Bush stupidity column of ‘NUCULAR’. Sorry, but if your finger is on the button, don'tcha think ya should know how to spell it?

And excuse me, but damned if she doesn't want to be another Dick Cheney. If you are going to be the Veep, you need to learn Article 1 of the Constitution. The founding fathers weren’t ‘flexible’ in the powers they gave the VP over the senate. Try again, Palin. I was thrilled to see Biden stick it to her again, although I would have actually liked to see him tell her directly that she was incorrect. The VP is a member of the executive branch, not the legislative branch. No matter how much you wish it were otherwise. That is 12th grade government, dearie. Learn your constitution. And if you can't, or don't want to, then at least learn the issues for Pete's sake, and answer a question. Wanna get back to me on that one, Sarah? Golly gee willickers. Say it ain't so, Sarah.

So, did you watch? What did you think?