By Janiak, An Alaskan living in Tucson, blogging from my living room, with a friend.
Here was the high point:
Joe Biden said that China builds some number of coal plants every month, and yet John McCain thinks the only answer is drill, drill, drill.
Its "drill baby drill," Sarah Palin corrected him.
And Palin said we need to look at reality from Main Street, Wasilla. I don't know if everyone has been reading the columns from LA Times, but see the video from columnist Steve Lopez who visits the hometown.
Here is my summary:
Biden led off, noting how disastrous the last eight years of the Bush administration have been for the economy.
Then, in a colorful image, Palin suggested that Joe Six Pack needs to get together with hockey moms like herself to stop greed and corruption on Wall Street, and "We need to demand strict oversight." She said this more than once, and it sure sounds odd; is "strict oversight" the same as regulation? Since when do Republicans support regulation?
Then Palin got back to creating jobs by cutting taxes. She seemed to forget that the eight years of Bush tax cuts had not created jobs. Except maybe in Iraq.
Palin claimed that Obama voted to increase taxes 49 times. Biden charged that the statement was false. "Using the standard that the Governor uses," he said, "McCain voted to raise taxes 449 times."
Governor Palin would not answer a question about whether McCain supported regulation. She did brag about reducing taxes in Alaska. Of course, Alaska has a huge budget surplus this year, and Alaskans generally pay no state taxes. I thought that was disingenuous.
Then Gwen Iffil asked "What will you cut to accommodate the latest bailout?" This is the same question that Jim Lehrer asked the presidential candidates; they did not answer.
This time, Biden did better that Obama did when he was asked the question, saying that we can't cut things like job creation. Palin came up with the statement that nothing that was currently on the table would be curtailed. And she said that John McCain had not made any promises that he would not be able to keep. We thought this was a real misstatement, or misunderstanding of the question, perhaps intentional.
Then Palin answered a question, trying to get to the idea that "energy independence is the key to America's future," but on the way there, she sure took a lot of detours, I don't even know what she was trying to say.
Then on global warming, Palin said that there are real changes, but there are also cyclical changes, "I don't want to argue about causes, but we need to look at what we are going to do about it." She claimed to be the first governor to establish a climate change sub-cabinet. Then she said that we need to establish energy independence for that reason also. She said she did want to conserve fuel and clean up the planet.
Biden here managed to draw a clear distinction, saying global warming is clearly man-made; if you don't understand the cause, it's impossible to come up with a solution. But as Biden pointed out, McCain has voted against alternative energy 20 times.
And, they definitely disagreed about the war. When Biden claimed that the Bush Administration had been a diplomatic failure, Palin said that the Bush administration had not been an abject failure. And then she called for "an end to the blame game," too much looking backwards, we will learn from past mistakes, and used this to segue back to McCain platitudes about maverick, change is coming, etc. etc. She used this tactic repeatedly, to distance McCain-Palin from Bush.
But, said Biden, past is prologue. I haven't heard anything, he said, about how McCain's policies will be any different from Bush's. We, Obama-Biden, will make significant changes, so that we will be the most respected nation in the world.
When Biden tried to draw a distinction, saying that he had voted for the resolution authorizing the war, but had actually opposed going to war, Sarah really made fun of him, "It's so obvious that I am a Washington outsider. You voted for, it was a war resolution, but now you say that you are against it. You supported McCain's strategies."
I am sure that those who supported Palin before had their support reinforced. And she definitely projected an appealing persona. But I doubt if she convinced many Democrats. Biden got in a number of points of difference, on funding for health care, education, and especially ending the war. McCain voted against S-CHIP, the Violence Against Women act. McCain has not supported any funding for education; this includes early childhood education and necessary money so that states can implement the No Child Left Behind Act.
Palin on the other hand, unapologetically supported the idea of American exceptionalism, America as the shining city on the hill, an example to the rest of the world, a beacon of freedom, etc. etc. It's a kind of empty patriotism, with a closing dig at mainstream media.
Biden closed closer to home: Respect, honesty, work hard, you can accomplish anything, we are running to reestablish that certitude for everyone.