Biden-Palin Vice Presidential Debate Reaction: HuffPost Bloggers Weigh In

Madeleine Albright: Senator Biden's Night:

Given the challenges our nation now faces, we need a vice president who can be persuasive with foreign leaders, tough with congress, and relentless in his drive to serve the American people. Tonight, Joe Biden showed why he is the right person for that job. On question after question, he demonstrated knowledge, careful thought, and a willingness to make hard decisions. And with every answer, he vindicated Senator Obama's judgment and showed why he is considered one of our nation's wisest and most experienced leaders. READ MORE

Nora Ephron: The Graph and I:

This was the first time I've watched a debate on CNN, and it turns out to have this graph running along the bottom of the screen, a graph that allegedly represents the moment-by-moment feelings of a group of supposedly independent voters in Columbus, Ohio, who sit, with some sort of electronic devices, and register their warmth or cool as the debate goes on. Well, this is no way to watch a debate. ... This graph on CNN affected me, it affected me so much that I could barely focus on the debate, I was so busy watching the graph. I knew it was completely unreliable and irrelevant, and yet my heart sank and rose according to it. READ MORE

Robert Shrum: McCain Lost the VP Debate Too:

Sarah Palin has experience being a runner-up -- which will come in handy in November. Tonight she barely kept up. In advance, the commenteriat almost unanimously agreed on a false measure of this debate. Judging by "expectation" meant that pundits could conceivably award a faux victory if she was half-coherent and modestly informed after a cram session in Arizona. But voters apply an absolute standard, not a low water mark of expectations: With America facing two wars and economic disaster, Americans ask if a candidate is up to the job. READ MORE

Paul Reiser: Palin's Great Achievement: She Didn't Stink Up the Joint:

I thought the moment where Senator Biden talked about the death of his wife and child, and raising his sons himself was tremendously moving and genuine. It was a bold -- and very relevant -- point to make; that just because she's a mom and drives a van to soccer games doesn't mean she's cornered the market on real life. I thought he was superb. READ MORE

Erica Jong: You Betcha She's Doggone Cute:

Nothing she says makes sense but the eyelashes never stop batting. Catch phrases and buzz words bounce in the air above her head. She adores the word "also." Also, she adores herself. She is so doggone cute she turns herself on. READ MORE

Adam McKay: Am I Crazy or was that an Ass Whuppin'?:

Not only do I want to grab a beer with Biden but I might even have three or four and maybe some onion rings. He was masterful tonight. Biden is a stone cold pro in a world where most politicians just become cold or stone-like. But Joe Biden managed to communicate on every issue in a clear and laser focused way.  READ MORE

Sheryl Crow: Who is Palin? We Still Don't Know.:

I, for one, am terrified that all the "soccer moms" and the "Joe six-packs" will fall for the likable candidate as being qualified to lead our country. I don't want someone who is likable, I want the smartest, most prepared team, and that does not include the spunky Sarah Palin. The major component she has working for her is that she knows exactly when to throw in the statement, "John McCain and I are Mavericks!," a self-appointed label.  READ MORE

Michael Showalter: Shakespearean Tragedy:

I think, when it comes to being the leader of the free world, as in Shakespeare, it's not enough to learn the words, you've got to know what the words mean. Macbeth's "Tomorrow" soliloquy seems apt in describing Ms. Palin's performance in the debate: "It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." READ MORE

Hooman Majd: Madam (Vice) President:

Sarah Palin, who is vying to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, a presidency with a seventy-two year old heart, that is, would do well to understand that the United States actually should second-guess its allies, particularly if that ally intends to commence military action against another state with airplanes, armaments, and bombs made in America, and paid for by American taxpayers. READ MORE

Jane Hamsher: It's Official: GOP Ticket Now "Winky and Wrinkly":

Forget the tight stripper skirt, forget the metallic eyeshadow inappropriate for anyone over the age of 40, forget the cloying sitcom delivery, the lies, the cruel and calculated needling of Biden by calling his college professor wife a "school teacher" and saying "she'll get her reward in Heaven" (to a man whose first wife died in a car accident) -- she's an idiot. READ MORE

Robert Mackey: Huzzah for Governor Palin, On to Richmond! General McClellan Has Arrived in Afghanistan!":

In general, there wasn't a car crash of moose-killing proportions. It was just more of the same -- someone who was so far out of her league on the issues that she could not help but be as nervous as a baby seal at a polar bear pot luck. This came out when she kept calling General David McKiernan, our commander in Afghanistan, "General McClellan." READ MORE

Michael Shaw: Reading The Pictures: Palin Family Goes Poof!:

Sleeper highlight of the evening? Surprisingly, it was how the Biden family neutralized the PR power of the Palin family in the post-debate milling around. ... If partly calculated, it was also touching the way the Biden clan hung out with Gwen Ifill in light of the pounding she took from conservative pundits the past few days.  READ MORE

Brandon Friedman: McClellan, McKiernan, You Know, One of Those Army Guys...:

Now, in most cases, this type of oversight on the part of a politician could be dismissed--maybe even attributed to nerves. But when Afghanistan is exploding and on the verge of failure, details matter. Facts matter. Being familiar with the situation matters--a lot. The troops depend on it. READ MORE

Cenk Uygur: Real Winner of the Debate: Katie Couric:

Couric's interviews with Sarah Palin were excellent for one simple reason - follow-ups. She did what, unfortunately, so little journalists do these days - she asked pertinent, revealing (yet polite) follow-up questions. This allowed us to see behind the veneer of Sarah Palin and realize it was backed up by absolutely nothing. Real journalism led to real facts we would not have otherwise seen. Imagine if Couric had not done those interviews - or had not asked those tough follow-up questions - and all we had seen were Gwen Ifill's standard queries from Thursday night, we might never have known how very little Sarah Palin really knows.  READ MORE

Leah McElrath Renna: Joe's Tears: the Political Power of Paternal Love:

Joe Biden did more for the equality of the sexes with his honest display of paternal emotion during the vice presidential debate than Sarah Palin's presence on the executive ticket has or will ever do. READ MORE

Art Brodsky: Welcome To Sarahland:

Welcome to Sarahland. It's a magical place, where the sun always shines, everything is just perfect and where reality is simply an optional mode of existence. In Sarahland, answering questions asked to you is optional. You say what you want to say, regardless of what that old-school questioner has to offer. Want to talk about education, or taxes? Go right ahead. It doesn't matter what the question is. She cheerfully admitted she won't answer the question the moderator, Gwen Ifill, wants to ask or even stick to the topics Ifill wants the candidates to discuss.  READ MORE

Joseph Romm: Palin in Debate Still Gets Global Warming Backwards and Repeats Big Energy Lie Twice:

Palin had told Katie Couric "I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate." The debate transcript reveals she still can't get her talking points straight on this issue. READ MORE

RJ Eskow: Palin Runs For Senate Dictator as Republicans Ride The "Straight Talking Points" Express:

So, as robotic Republicans repeated their straight-talking points, many of us saw a repeat of George W. Bush's pseudo-folksiness and fundamental dishonesty, together with his unquenchable thirst for power that he (like she) is unqualified to wield. And, by an overwhelming margin, viewers saw a candidate lose a debate.  READ MORE

Ari Melber: A Spicier VP Debate Hits YouTube:

Thursday's vice presidential debate was a serious and substantive affair. With superb moderating by Gwen Ifel, the conversation stuck to policy-driven sparring, but the footage is already taking a different shape on YouTube. READ MORE

Jacob Heilbrunn: The Moose That Roared:

Bless her heart, Sarah "drill, baby, drill" Palin strove mightily to hit a gusher tonight against Joe Biden, but came up empty. No, her performance was not the disaster that some in the GOP have been fearing. She'll probably get extra credit, to use a term she employed, for just showing up. But cliche was piled upon cliche as Palin sought to paint Barack Obama, or "Barack," as she referred to him constantly in an attempt to diminish him, as a goofy radical, paired with a more sensible Lieberman, who would end up running America off the rails. As though it hasn't already run off them? The albatross around the neck of the McCain camp, doggone it, is the most unpopular president in American history, George W. Bush. Biden had it right: "past is prologue." READ MORE

Comments

[sammiek]

When I heard Palin's speech at the Republican Convention my reaction was that she was like Cheney in so many ways. She is as coldly calculating as he and shares his love of guns and hunting. Now she says the VP powers should be extended. This is scary.....we can not take four more years of Cheney or anyone who agrees with him and his power grabbing ways.
As far as the VP debate, she was just reciting memorized talking points with her fake folksy act. She drove me crazy with her "bless their hearts" and winks. Especially the winks!
I thought she was like a parrot on the old TV show, Hee Haw. I expected to see people popping up behind her in a corn field!

[kimbalawyer]

I am curious precisely what Gov. Palin did for Alaska with the additional tax she got big oil companies to pay to the State of Alaska. Just how much was it anyway that the big oil companies paid to the State of Alaska? Perhaps a pittance in terms of their relative wealth as the big oil companies still managed to rake in something around $ 60 Billion in profits. The constant self-aggrandizing claim that she alone was somehow uniquely able to break the back of big oil and that they tremble in fear of her is quite possibly baseless. It could have been a very reasonable tax the oil companies were happy to pay in return for which she allowed them other regulatory accomodations. If her claim is true, why wasn't she before Congress when the big oil representatives testified they really don't make that much money?

[Mudwyn]

What debate?

Well, I went to the ball game but I did not have to play by the rules.
Dumb is cool.
Educated and informed people make me smirky.
Facts don’t matter to “Americans”.
The media filter makes my language and logic all wacky.

Sound familiar?
Sarah Palin’s practiced unwillingness to answer the questions was so damned eerie .
Post debate, the MSNBC website headline read ,“For Palin, Mission Accomplished” . Uh, referring to what reality. Yes, just like Bushie on the aircraft carrier; she didn’t know any better. She delivered her memorized talking points and was cocky. What a test for the presidency. Alternative reality is apparently now accepted as a valid position.

This debate nonsense either has to be presented under a different format name or we’ve got to start having the real deal. The moderator was non-existent. Where were the follow-up questions ? By allowing a Palin /Bush droid like performance, the American political process of free elections suffered a blow again tonight. Again. After we have had all the hard lessons a nation can take.

I go back to the pilot analogy. They study, they are tested, they log many hours, and they finally get licensed to fly the damn plane because it is a serious and dangerous job. This kind of bar to serve as the pilot of our country would be a small thing to ask. Even smaller would be to demand a true debate of the issues. Yesterday, more than ever.

[ThisIsNotThat]

Palin/McCain has put every major daily newspaper editorial board on the hotseat. It's one thing for a minority segment of a faith-based political party to give their unconditional support to their party regardless of the candidate. But it's way different for professional journalists to put their credibility, and that of their publication, on the line, in writing, for posterity, to endorse this reckless, erratic, angry, and lightweight ticket. Almost every major daily newspaper in the US is on the verge of becoming nothing but a publisher of local advertising. Maybe the editorial boards need to be reminded that voters are also readers and buyers ... or former readers and buyers.

[shiningstar1]

I'm convinced that it would not matter what she says as long as she says it "folksy" and with a wink. It is ridiculous. There are so many people that don't make any sense to me when they vote against their own interests, but maybe the "six-pack" has something to do with it? I just don't understand how Republicans can defend McCain's pick for VP. If he cares about the country why didn't he pick somebody more qualified? He wants to win at any cost and I don't think he even likes Palin himself. His body language is very tense around her. We are losing the war because it has contributed to bankrupting our country. 8 years of Bush were more destructive than Osama Bin Laden could have ever been. The Dems need to step it up. They are to blame too. Signing this ridiculous amount of money of to Wall Street. When I saw Paulson and Bush smiling today...well that said it all. Sparkle and Shine! http://www.sexyobamashirts.com

[RightWingConspiriter]

I'm afraid I totally disagree with most of you! I thought Palin was a Breath of Fresh Air that we need in Washington!!!! Its time to put someone up there that REALLY IDENTIFYS with the everyday hard working person! We've got too many Ivy Leager's there now that have made a mess and that includes Democrats and Replubicans!!!!!!! I believe she is genuine and honest and loves this country, and she's extrememly smart! She was able to stand up against a Senate veteran! Maybe she didn't throw out all the big fancy words and jargon, she just got to the point instead of steady political Spew that is habitiual of politicians!!!! She's more quaified to be Vice President than Obama to be President!

[Redbaron2]

Sarah Palin is simply a huge phony. She knows nothing. She is extraordinarily ignorant. She was all chirps and winks and blowing kisses. She is an ignorant woman but she is very cute and charming. Is this really what you want in a president? Do you really think it is an unimportant job? Do you really think there are no high stakes for the country? Do you really think we could just pluck anybody from the nearest Dunkin Donuts to run the country? Why do you want expertise, judgment, and experience in a surgeon but not in the president? If you don't think talent and intelligence counts look at what George Bush has wrought. I think this will affect your life.

[HandsomeElvis]

Blue, you hit it on the head. I also was appalled that she did not acknowledge Joe's anguish in any way. That told me more about her than anything. I agree about the baby's being used as a prop. It was almost 11:00 PM and she had to trot the poor thing out.

[JayInDallas]

One of the more gratifying items produced in the current campaign is the degree to which this country has refused to be led astray or distracted by the tactics of the GOP that worked well in previous elections. The majority of Americans recognize that the stakes are too high not to ask for better, higher standards. To demand qualifications and substance. That rhetoric is meaningless. After 911, a shocked America cried out for leadership. Protect our country. Punish the culprits. After 8 years we've come to recognize mediocrity when we see or hear it and Americans simply won't stand for it in their government any longer. After Iraq, Katrina and the catastrophes we've endured, the same group who brought you George W. Bush offers you...John McCain. The same divide-and-conquer ideology in new packaging. New and improved! Now with Sarah Palin!

We've grown up now. Washington is on notice. We have finely tuned bullshit detectors. Time to move this country FORWARD.

[benthere]

Sarah Palin may not have run from the debate screaming last night but all the winking and cutesy one liners were not very "Vice Presidential." She acted as though she were in another beauty pageant. I would not have been surprised to see her whip out the flute and do a couple of folksy tunes for us.

[EDGAR]

I thought by winking to someone meant "i'm pulling your leg" VERYCUTE SARAH.

[snesich]

I’m not an English teacher, but anyone who listened closely to the words of Sarah Palin on Thursday night had to be a bit embarrassed by her poor use of our language. She often failed to speak in complete sentences. A lot of her lines were vague and incoherent. She used numerous malapropisms. Much of the time it was difficult to understand what she was talking about.

And this was in addition to Palin’s inability to accurately cite facts or remember the correct names of key political figures, both American and international.

I was actually starting to feel some sympathy for Palin. But then I realized that the campaign for Vice President is not a popularity contest. It’s about proving your competence to do this job.

Your ability to speak, and speak clearly, is an indication of your thinking, your preparation, your confidence and your experience. Palin’s verbal confusion, her reliance on Republican talking points, rehearsed attack lines, worn-out clichés, and her inability (or outright refusal) to answer so many of the questions asked of her, gave us an indication of her readiness to assume the Vice Presidency.

Unfortunately for Palin, and for John McCain, the debate reaffirmed something most of us have suspected for a while: Sarah Palin is clearly not qualified to hold this important office.

[RedKnuckles]

I watched the coverage of the debate on our local KGW News 8 NBC affilliate here in Portland, Oregon. What stood out in the coverage was how at every turn they attempted to make it look like a very even debate. The few seconds of Palin's performance made her look good. It was as if they were implying it was a draw not only on presentation, but on substance as well.

[queenubya]

Well, I for one was very disgusted by the debate. I think it is important to have a VP who actually knows something about handling tough situations. Palin was a complete mess and it is scary to think that there are some people that support her- not in Alaska-that are perfectly okay with this woman in office.

She does not have a clue about anything and using your children to try and sway votes is appalling. I think that she should stay in Alaska, take care of the mess that she has created there, really raise her baby and the new one that is coming and slowly gain some more experience, lets say in about NEVER!!!

[American100]

I beleive the lies told by Biden (10 documented votes that were not true by Biden, Obama and McCain)shows he had nothing to offer but more excuses as to why the the Democratically controlled Senate and Congress since 2006 made no changes to improve oversite or any changes to improve our lives.

We gave them back the majority and they did nothing! Bush a Spend, Spend president just went along with their proposed bills, not once stopping the Pork. He was bad for our country, which is why we need to get rid of all them and start over. The social experiment is not working. It is time for change, but Obama's change is like crowd screeming give us Barabus. Watch what you ask for!

[FedUp60]

Palin's statement that she is middle-class, average, everyday families like mine was a laugh. She certainly is not middle-class. I understand that Joe Biden's assets are much lower. After 15 minutes of watching the debate, I had to turn it off because Palin just gets under my skin. If she represents some Americans, God help us!!

[pdooley]

Golly gee, heckdarnit, reality sure is messy. Gosh, if Don Rumsfeld was a girrrl wouldn't he sound just like her?