Because it’s bullshit. She only did as well as Biden allowed her too. He had to play that whole ‘not look sexist’ thing but had he not had to he would have utterly destroyed her.

Bullshit? But then you say she did well (albeit thanks to Biden)?

Did she do better than expected or not? Which one is it?

I’ll tell you: she did much better than people expected. People did watch it expecting gaffes-aplenty. They didn’t come.

That doesn’t mean she uttered anything constructive or substantive. She lied numerous times. And she flatly refused to answer certain questions.

So from an academic position it was an awful performance. From a political one, not so much.

She didn’t crash and burn. She did wrangle a few points by ably twisting Biden’s comments into negatives. Palin did manage to put in a par performance under incredible pressure and scrutiny.

If anyone won the debate it was Biden – with his great kitchen sink line and much spikier send-half performance, but I think it was probably a score-draw.

In hindsight he also appears to have been an excellent pick by Obama. Obama’s goal has to be shown that he isn’t just an empty suit and that he is ready to govern. Picking someone for electoral purposes would have undermined that and I think people appreciate that Delaware isn’t an important state.

Look if Obama loses, go after him all you want. But untill then admit that whenever people have tried to second guess Obama and just as importantly David Axelrod, they have been wrong. They said he wasn’t attacking Hillary Clinton enough – wrong. They said he needed to divert resources away from organising towards tv ads – wrong. They said that having operations in many states rather than a few swing states – wrong. That he should have picked someone flashier than Biden – wrong.

I’ll stop now.

Why is it so hard to admit she did much better than expected last night?

Because it’s bullshit. She only did as well as Biden allowed her too. He had to play that whole ‘not look sexist’ thing but had he not had to he would have utterly destroyed her.

She did nothing but stick to a script and refuse to answer questions, anyone can look good doing that in those conditions!

True but thats not just her:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hSnEMV58F8

Finally!

)

I had a similar thought this morning: if McCain loses, Palin already knows that the Republican base loves her. She could be back in 2012/2016 – and next time, she’ll be better prepared.

(Pause)

Are readers scared already?

Ben

Ben

That said, I didn’t find her particularly convincing or straight-talking. My instinct is that the line “Gosh darnnit, I’m a maverick and so’s my boss” was going to do much. I know that we in Europe all live in fear of the gullibility of the American fundie hick voter, but when it’s that obvious that the woman is only there to provide a folksy narrative, I think a lot of them will see through it. She can’t. Early polls certainly seem to suggest that.

And to have an effect on the race, she needed to do a lot more than just not lose. There was a time when she was meant to be the game-changer for McCain. If the most they’re expecting from her now is that she memorize her lines for the few appearances they allow her to make, then there goes their one slim hope.

This is what her former opponent said before the debate:

“”The one thing I found during the [2006] debates was no matter how knowledgeable her opponents were on the issues, it didn’t matter,” Mr Halcro told BBC News.

“She has an amazing ability to turn a 45-second answer into a folksy story… she’s never been forced to know the issues.” “

That’s exactly what she did and it was extremely irritating. Admittedly, Biden was poor but with his record he should never have been selected as VP.

However, I think the honest appraisal has to be that while she can cope with set piece debates given a lot of preparation and time to memorise a bunch of stock answers, what she can’t do is think on her feet.

And that’s the line that the Democrats need to play – can you trust her to be able to think on her feet in a crisis or will she just stand there a burble inanely while everything goes to shit around her.

As I said, I’m no fan of hers – indeed I’ve been an Obama supporter since day one, but she didn’t crash and burn last night.

The fact is, as much as she pisses off liberals, she may – if she survives this campaign – end up being a strong political force.

As much was said on the Rachel Maddow show on Air America yesterday. So I suppose America’s top liberal talk-radio channel and I are both wrong.

Yes, I love being patronised by a dead-eyed, insincere right wing freak too. It makes me roll over to have my tummy tickled if they use “folksy” words like “betcha” and “heckuva.”

Sheesh. And this is article is analysis?