Greetings and salutations!

What a difference 90 minutes makes...or not.

I just finished watching the first and only US vice presidential debate between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin. CNN has been using a focus group to provide real time reaction to candidate statements. During the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, the group was classified into Republicans, Democrats, and independents - so the latter was the only contingent worth paying any attention to. This time the same group was classified into only men and women and I think this made things much more interesting.

The important things up front - I think there was some validity to the idea that expectations of Governor Palin had gotten so low (thanks, in no small part, to her recent interview with Katie Couric) that even a decent showing would be considered great success. In the end, I was somewhat surprised to see that, for the most part, she very much held her own. She spoke the language of the people, there were no major gaffes, and she survived to fight another day. She was, however, vague on a number of questions and outright refused to directly answer others, including what she considered to be her main weakness as a political candidate.

In fact, neither candidate made any significant slip-ups and the fact remains that both of them were locked away in debate camp for the days prior to this evening. That said, Joe Biden was clearly the more seasoned player here and I think it's hard for anyone to deny that he really came out on top.

Both candidate did what they needed to do, which was focus on the presidential candidates and their policies rather than attacking each other. Both Senator Biden and Governor Palin were very civil to each other and Biden did a masterful job, considering the pressure on him to avoid seeming, in any way, condescending to Palin, something that would have gone over very poorly and really highlighted the issue of supposed sexism in this campaign. In fact, one of the most poignant moments in the debate was when Senator Biden made an emotional appeal as a man who understands being a single parent, as he was following the death of his wife and daughter shortly after his election in December, 1972.

The thing about the McCain campaign that continues to blow my mind is how they try to separate themselves from the current Republican administration. They are still the same party, John McCain still voted in line with George Bush 95% of the time, and working with registered independent Joe  Leiberman is not "reaching across the aisle".  I did find it somewhat surprising that, up until the end of the debate, Senator Biden didn't make much of a conscious effort to tie McCain to Bush. Though when Sarah Palin kept making the statement that we should forget the past (conveniently), Joe Biden came back with a sharp, "the past is prologue" response.

Getting back to that real time reaction data, a couple of general points became clear during the debate - women seem to warm to Joe Biden, which I found presently surprising, and no one cares about what happens in Alaska. On the issues though...

Global warming - Biden shocked me somewhat by blatantly attributing global warming solely to human activity, completely ruling out any natural, cyclical climate factors. I think that was a mistake but he did do a great job of tying global warming into the economic debate, then moving on to tie energy issues into foreign policy, an excellent example of his masterful skill in this debate.

Same sex marriage - There was actually little movement on this issue as neither party supports redefining marriage but do support equal benefits for all civil unions.

Iraq - Joe Biden has a long record of foreign policy expertise in his years in the Senate and this was very obvious here as he took control, leaving Sarah Palin looking out of her depth once again. He scored more points here by tying Iraq back into the economy. Frankly though, I'm somewhat amused the debate over timelines in Iraq continues even though it is now clearly up to Iraq to decide when US troops leave, and that seems to be planned for 2011/2012.

McCain himself admitted he is weak on economic issues, so lucky (or good strategy) for him that Palin can handle herself here, though she often leans toward health care issues, possibly in an effort to take the mantle that Hillary Clinton successfully carried for some time. On the other side, she has no clue about foreign policy while John is strong (not necessarily right) in that arena. The same conclusions could be drawn for Obama and Biden, of course.

Iran - This became a passionate part of the debate and another where Senator Biden ranked very highly, again, particularly among women. As he did all night, he called John McCain to task and reminded Governor Palin that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not the real leader of Iran, for example. There was further discussion on strategies regarding Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. It was interesting that there was no mention of the recent nuclear deal between the US and India, and there was a surprise pledge by Sarah Palin that the US Embassy in Israel would eventually be moved to Jerusalem. It is now in Tel Aviv, as are most of the world's embassies, as the 1967 annexation of east Jerusalem by Israel is not recognized internationally.

Darfur - It was heartwarming to see that people still care very much about stopping genocide even though we don't read about it on the front page anymore. Both parties agreed that the killing must stop and the new UN backed African force must be fully supported by America.

The role of Vice President - this was very interesting as Governor Palin championed Dick Cheney for exploring the US Constitution's "flexibility" in defining the VP's role between the executive and legislative branches of government. Joe Biden rightly, in my opinion, referred to Cheney as "the most dangerous vice president in US history." In a recent interview, Sarah Palin was asked which historical vice president was her favorite. She answered George H.W. Bush (Sr.) because he went on to become president. No foreshadowing there....

So that's my report on the debate. Both candidates did well; I think Joe Biden won the night but Sarah Palin went a long way in restoring her credibility - though that doesn't actually have much impact on the forthcoming election. The economy is the real trigger now...but the You Tube moment of the night:

Sarah Palin: "John McCain in the man we need to leave...to lead..."

With Hope,
Joseph

Governor Sarah Palin | Senator Joe Biden | Vice Presidential Debate