This debate is all about Sarah Palin.
Her mic is on and she didn't realize it. Nothing bad, just funny to hear her ask if she can call Biden "Joe".
Biden is smooth, sounds good.
Palin's first answer is stiff, but she got through it without a big hit. Has a bit of nervousness.
Biden's second answer: he stumbled a bit.
Palin's second answer, she is sounding smoother.
On mortgage crisis: Palin is now riffing on "predator lenders". Ooh, now she's a populist. She's a little awkward, consulting her notes, but she's got a little of her nose-wrinkle groove on. She's hitting personal responsibility, which will sound good.
Biden is addressing Gwen Ifill directly. I think this is his way of keeping away from looking mean to Palin--focus on the moderator. He's starting to sound a little stuff, like he's listening to himself. The patented little story with an average Joe's name.
Palin addresses Joe by looking him in the eye. He nods. Good little moment. More nose-wrinkle, which is really appealing from her. But she can't seem to get smooth, her diction is too stoccato and precise. But if it gets no worse, she'll come out with a minor loss.
Biden calls her statements untrue. She needs to not listen to his answer right now. It's a rebuttle, so she won't be responisble for answering it, and it might rattle her. I think it's getting a little chippy. She attacks back: "Let me correct you again on that..."
I'll post this now, if it doesn't change, this is Biden by a moderate, but not damaging amount.
12 comments:
"Rear that head of abuse"? She is one awkward speaker under stress. She's not awful, but she's not great.
Biden has stuttered in places too, more than I expected.
Liam, you're exactly right, there are no knock-out blows in debates any more.
Boy, Pat Robertson is as Brazilean as I've ever heard him.
Brazilean? I don't know what the hell you mean, unless you're referring to the wax, and oh my, that's a disturbing mental image.
Excuse me while I go bleach my eyeballs.
re: no knock out lines in debates "any more."
It's the format not actually being a debate in any sense I understand the word. The way they're run it's like professional wrestling, not championship boxing.
It's "Brazilean" not "Brazilian". Brazilean as in Donna Brazile. She is very smart, but she is the very definition of being unable to see reality through her partisan perspective. For instance:
Biden and Palin go out on stage, Biden trips, hits his face and blood spurts everywhere, in reaction he looks up at Palin and screams, "What are you looking at, you right-wing whore!" He then spends an hour screaming racist invective at Ifill, pausing only long enough to blow his bloody nose into his own shirt tail.
George Stephanopolous, partisan as he is, might say, "Biden really screwed that up, it was embarrassing."
Donna Brazile would opine on television saying, "I think the American people are feeling refreshed to finally see true, honest feelings coming from a party candidate, he scored well. A clear victory for Biden and the Democrats tonight."
Less hyperbolically, she would look at Kerry droning on and on and on and talk about how refreshed the American people felt to have a candidate who was well-versed in specifics. Now maybe it is *better* that he was well-versed, but it tool a particularly Brazlean interpretation to see his droning as a positive.
Aha. I see now. I find it amusing that you single Brazile out for the dubious honor of that particular eponym. I don't disagree, mind you, it is just such a common affliction of partisan hacks on both sides that it hardly merits a name.
Buchanan actually can be somewhat reality-based from time to time. But he's there to be "the designated conservative," so I'll allow him the license. Maddow, from the brief bit I saw, did seem predictably partisan in her own take as well.
Buchanan is shockingly realistic. I love him for it. Last night was the most partisan I've seen him in a while.
Maddow and Olbermann are really, really partisan these days.
Of the talking head Sunday shows I like This Week the best, and Brazile is often on the panel. She's the outlier in the respect of partisanship on the panel. Roberts, Will, Stephanopolous, etc are all realistic if partisan.
It's funny, because you're also seeing the "restrained" Rachel Maddow. She's much more "responsible pundit" on the TeeVee than she is on her radio show. I've been listening to her for years on Air America, and she's unabashedly partisan there. She tones it down a lot for MSNBC. Which is a good thing.
I sensed that about Maddow, when she surfaced on MSNBC I went and researched her. The picture of her in boots and a flannel shirt shows how amazing TV hair and clothing people are.
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