What I Saw Inside The Debate Hall

I was seated on the floor for the debate. It was very interesting to watch Palin when the camera was on Biden. On topics where it was clear she knew the talking points, she kept looking into the camera with a big smile. On foreign policy and other points where she gave light answers, she was intently reviewing her notes on the podium.

I'm not sure how much things came across on camera, but each time that Palin made a cute move -- twice winking at the camera, giving a 'shout out', claiming to be a maverick or painting herself as outside the beltway -- there was a visceral reaction from the people in the room. Even from the Republicans seated next to me. The Republicans I spoke with immediately afterwards felt very somber about her performance. The first hour she came across strong, but the last half hour did her in.

The imagery was very interesting when we walked out of the Field House. There were these massive McCain/Palin signs that were deployed everywhere around any media. These along with homemade signs declaring Palin the winner were all a part of the spin -- and surprising to see because we were told not to bring in signs.

Biden gave direct answers to nearly all of the questions (except the first one, if I recall correctly). Palin was charming but stuck to talking points or patented responses if she was in deep waters. Clearly Biden won.

Read more reactions to the Biden-Palin Vice Presidential debate from HuffPost bloggers

Comments

[PoliticalJules]

I am amazed at the innacuracies reported as fact, and the flip flop of biasedness only when it suits the cause. There were no notes brought to the debate. The candidates have a pad and pen at the podium to make notes of what each party said, as to address each topic presented. BO did the EXACT SAME THING, probably more.

So what exactly was the problem here? Anyone care to explain?

[justobserve]

The problem is Palin talked about the only issue she wanted: oil and gas (she called "energy" but hers doesn't include renewable types). When Biden recount McCain's record, she said he looked to the past but when she refused to answer the question she then proceeded to talk about her own past record! She kept syaing Obama raise tax while his is to cut tax for earner under 250K. Palin said small businesses would be taxed more but Biden replied small businesses normally earned less than 250K which would benefit from the Obama's tax cut.. Did Palin really know about small business or she lied as usual? DON'T GAMBLE YOUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE WITH McCAIN-PALIN'S RECKLESS JUDGMENT, LIES, BIGOTRY, FAKE FAMILY VALUES, SECRECY, CRONYISM.

[JNagarya]

97 per cent of small businesses earn LESS that $250,000.00 per year, therefore WILL NOT see a tax increase.

Palin didn't so much lie -- she'd have to know the facts in order to do that -- as she spewed the usual Republican talking-point against "tax increases by Democrats" even when there is no tax increase.

To them, repealing the mega-tax-breaks for the wealthy -- those who least need it, but those who are most like the Republicans -- would be a "tax increase," rather than a restoration of a previous tax rate. They simply don't know how to tell the truth.

"Tax and spend," by the way, only means: "Having the money in hand one is spending," unlike the Republicans, who are "borrow and spend" -- spend the money one doesn't have when spending it, but MAYBE will have someday in the future.

The former is fiscally responsible. The latter is obviously irresponsibility, and makes for unnecessary debt. But, in the Republican view, better to be paaying off debt than spending the money on the taxpayer from whom it is derived by giving the taxpayer what the taxpayer demands in term of infrastructure and social assistance, the latter including that without which no society can do other than fail: education, and health care.

[bison1]

During the Dems primary debates, did anybody have notes?

[jegenes]

The question is, did they have computer monitors (screens) on their podiums? I noticed that, during both the Bush/Gore "debates" and the Bush/Kerry "debates", they had computer screens implanted into their podium desktops. I saw no mention of this ANYWHERE, in any press, but I did actually see them when the cameras went behind them a few times. (So far, we've only seen the candidates from the front or sides, not from behind).
So, again my question is (really, twofold), "do they use computer monitors, and if so, is there someone offstage scripting for them?"
That said, Biden was the clear winner. To think of her as being a heartbeat away from being the leader of the free world is frightening.

[Jaradan]

They didn't have notes. In Obama and Hillary debates, they both wrote notes as the other person spoke.

[PhDiva]

Thank you for reporting this. It's amazing that the cameras didn't show her going through her notes.

[bison1]

She had notes-- and still couldn't do any better?

[YellerDawg]

Who couldn't see it? It was obvious.

[Jaradan]

I saw her reading her notes while Joe was talking. That's why she never responded to anything he said. But he always responded to what she said. I guess he has a mental rolodex whereas she just has a cheat sheet. Also, she has a couple long pauses there when she was still trying to read her notes. gwen: Gov. Palin, would you care to respond? Palin: "ahhhhh.....your plan is like a white flag of surrender" LOL

[Jack Fraust]

Finally someone said it.

The lack of debate moderation was apparent to me. Gwen caved. Had she pressed Palin in followup questions, the republicans would've claimed that Palin's poor performance was due to being pressed by Gwen. As it stood, Palin didn't have to be pressed by Gwen or by Biden to look like a joke, rifling through her notes, not answering questions directly, pronouncing words wrong (NUCULAR) and get the name of the General running the Afghan war wrong. The cutesy/folksy bit didn't help and the flirty winks didn't give anyone the warm fuzzies about Palin's ability to lead this nation. The thing that killed it for me was the shout out to the Elementary school. I was like- "What is this? A high school pep rally"?? Gwen never grabbed the reins, but then she didn't have to. Biden didn't take Palin seriously enough to comment on anything she said accept to drive the point home that McCain isn't who we want for President and Palin is a great reason to NOT vote for McCain. McCain can hang it up. Palin killed his chances of becoming President

[JanP]

The debate rules were agreed to by both parties.

You seem to miss the 14 "mistakes" that Biden made. do an Internet search. they are easy to find.

[bison1]

I agree follow up questions were needed!

[MBMatthews]

I taught speech for many years at the college level. Her performance would rated her her an "F" on content and a "C" on performance. However, she is clearly playing to a base of "folks" who want this kind of vacuous generalities that blur the reality of facts and logic.

[JNagarya]

I had no probel with Ifill -- and was surprised by her informed, relevant, and complex questions.

And Ifill didn't have to follow up: Biden refuted Palin's nonense at every step of the way. As did Obama in his first with McSame, Biden won walking away.

And why do we need candidates who respond only to the moderator, on to the narrowest interpreteation of the moderator's posed question? Isn't it said to be a DEBATE? If a DEBATE, doesn't that mean the moderator is only there to toss in a bit of stimulus here and there, and keep time, while otherwise staying out of the way, and out from between the parties meant to be DEBATING EACH OTHER?

Biden was terrific. Palin was "perky," as would be a fakely-cheerful cheerleader, and I didn't like her winking at everyone AND me -- that only releaved her infidelity, that she cannot be trusted.

[joekutz]

Let's face it John McCain gambled that our heads would be turned by a pretty face as his obviously was. The Republicans can only say this, "she's the most popular governor in america." Well maybe but here in CA Arnold is pretty cool even for a Republican and also very popular. I think that the race would be a little bit closer if Romney or even Lyndsey Graham were picked. Lyndsey would have made it tough all right. Still McCain chose a pretty face which is okay except this is our country that is on the line here and not a popularity contest.

[Beca]

Her popularity as Gov. of Alaska is at 68%, does the McCain camp claim that all the other Governors' popularity is lower than that?!
Touting her as this spectacular Governor, when she has spent a total of 83 days working at the State Capitol of Alaska (equivalent to three months of work) since her innauguration about 21 months ago is an insult to all the hard working, full-time Governors of our states.
She is a joke, she is intellectually obtuse and uncurious, she needs to go back to frontier state Alaska!

[MBMatthews]

McCain's face is certainly turned by her. Just watch him when she's around!

[Jaradan]

She's rather plain-looking to me.

[realpolitic]

Palin's performance is a continuation of the dumbing down of the American public that Fox News and conservatives want to accomplish. When they try to negate global warming science, but then pretend they can find solutions to warming, it is alarming. When they say they want creationism taught in schools, but argue we must raise scholastic standards, it is alarming. When they pretend that budget cuts for the wealthy produce government revenues and make us all better off, it is alarming. But then, if we all are stupid enough and lack facts, we will believe them. This stupidity is what they hope to accomplish.

[grhodesreed]

I thought, too, that Palin was reviewing notes (as reportedly she did in debates in Alaska), but I thought that could not have been the case because I didn't think they could bring notes to the podium. I also thought that she tended to filibuster more or resort to the pat 'McCain as maverick' responses more near the end of the debate, although the media seemed to think she was slow to start and got better at the end. With respect to the signs, it is clear that neither Palin nor McCain intend to follow the rules even when they participate in fashioning them. But, the answer to this question is not hard. The two 'mavericks' lack the discipline, the ability to integrate information and understand abstractions, the temperance, the judgement or willingness to indulge aappropriate decorum, and ability to communicate clearly on the spot without notes to be our next leaders.
Gen

[JanP]

Why shouldn;t they ahve notes?

Do people want to know what the person thinks or is this a SAT test?

[Artos]

JanP,

It does if you have already been prepped ahead of time about the questions that are going to be asked. It seemed kind of curious to me that she seemed to have automatic answers to the questions. She ran through her answers like someone who didn't want to forget what they had rehearsed. I'll bet that if someone had interrupted her she would have gotten sidetracked, lost her place mentally and had to start over. The fact is that she should not have had to be schooled or to rehearse or had notes. She should know her topics and she should be very aware of what her Running Mates policy points are. Not knowing these things off the top of her head indicates to me that she didn't know squat.

[MBMatthews]

In a traditional and formal debate, the participants are supposed to come prepared to talk the issues, to show that they have the superior knowledge and argument. If they can't come prepared, then they shouldn't be there. Unfortunately, this candidate was appointed by McCain, the first decision he has made as the Republican nominee. If she is the example of the type of people he would appoint if he were elected, he make Bush's appointments look like geniuses.

[emcd]

One thing I noticed thanks to recent HuffPo articles is that she repeated almost word for word her mayoral "accomplishments" list from the 06 AK governor's debate. Look up the video.

She's good at repeating lists of "facts", dumbed down slogans (they hate us for our freedoms), and other people's talking points.

Analysis and interpretation generated out of her own brain? .... not so much.

[janvoght]

she unfortunately for mc cain is sorely out of her league. not to say that in 4 yrs if she makes the right moves, she might sure up her deficits....the "hail mary" didn't work!
obama '08

[shockwave11]

Exactly. That's why she never did a rebuttal which is what your supposed to do in a debate. Instead she would go on and on with what she was comfortable...this doesn't cut it if she's in front of any kind of domesti/foreign dignitaries.


Palin -you live your life by acting the part not by rehearsing for it. You ain't going to have time to rehearse or have five weeks to prepare when your in front of Putin or the very crude Chavez.

[billw8017]

Something should be said about the mindset behind Governor Palin's "white flag of surrender" remark. It is possible to exert a military presence to make a diplomatic point. The Chinese do this all the time: Korea and Mongolia in the 1950s, India, Vietnam. China sent in troops without getting bogged down with, for example, occupying India. What we should have learned in Vietnam and in Iraq is that you can't make people love you by shooting at them, but within their competence, our military has handled every mission with courage and professional skill.

In Iraq, we defeated the Iraqi army, resolved the Weapons of Mass Destruction threat, killed Hussein, and imposed a new Parliamentary government. As our military went from triumph to triumph, the mission was changed. Obviously, there was always just one mission: The neo cons wanted to turn Iraq into a US satellite subordinate to Israel, and take the oil industry. This is impractical and we should face that. Seriously, we have the most expensive military in the world but it is tainted with political corruption, a challenge to our civil rights and our economic well being. I know this is a radical notion, but as I say, seriously. Is war a proper way of life?

Let's pretend our excuses were always honestly meant, that we have merely slipped into the horror of mission creep, clutching after defeat as our military victories say, the work is done. Either way, bring the troops home with the honors they deserve.

[janvoght]

sarah has no choice but to follow mc cain/bush's bully first tactics, the diplomacy first tactics are those of the 21st century, and god willing will be the fresh new ideas and solutions of the obama/biden ticket. no new ideas or directions that palin could share with us in her prime opportunity at last night's debate. (at least they took karl rove's advice and kept the deliberate deceptions to a minimum)
obama '08

[S1m0n]

There *WAS* no WMD threat in Iran.

[Mauimom]

When I picked up my morning paper [The Maui News -- not a journalistic giant, but compared to the state of the Washington Post these days . . . .], the headline was "Palin Stands Her Ground in Biden Debate" [story cribbed off the AP wire].

My first reaction was, "if by 'stands her ground' you mean didn't curl up in a ball and cry, well then I guess she did. But think about Hillary [and I was NOT a big Hillary supporter] and the primary debates. 'Held her ground'??? Palin's was NOT the performance of a competent person in a 'clash of equals.' This was someone who hoped to escape a 1-1/2 hour job interview without peeing her pants. The CONTENT of what she said was ludicrous!! Miss South Carolina beauty contestant, come on down!"

[magen]

OOOOOH!!!!!

She studied real hard for her big exam, she did, ya know.

Passed it with a "C" just like Bush!!!!!!!

Time to let the "A" students run this country.

Like a Harvard Law Professor.

[HadEnoughCrap]

Her answers were the equivilant of marking"C" on every question of a multiple choice. Not a bad way to go if you don't have the answers, but not the way someone who actually knows the material would go

[Passenger57]

I would not be surprised if {WINK} , {SHOUT OUT}, and {GO 'MAYBERRY'} were actually directions on the cards.

[Maygressive]

The most inane analysis I heard was some pundit saying that she came across better because she spoke to the camera rather than Gwen. I think it only highlighted the fact that she wasn't answering her questions and had no intention of doing so. Chis Matthews said it best. To Paraphrase, "When someone comes on Hardball and looks only at the camera I think they are a DOLT !!! "

[bronceye]

What she did was to repeat or paraphrase sentences and paragraphs from her stump speech. It was really boring to listen to her as she said nothing new, except a shout out to kids who should have been in bed.

[Texgotham]

Sarah Palin is just a KMart version of a would-be Evita Peron. When she appears the band should strike up "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina. In that regard, she could be dangerous in office. She has the inflated ego of a cheerleader and probably little regard for the legislative process.