October 2, 2008 1:42 pm

VP Debate night

John McCain showed up to defend Sarah Palin from the liberal media, and Katy Couric continues her ongoing interview of Palin on the campaign trail

Watch CBS Videos Online

With all the attention on Palin, there has been very little on Biden. Biden has a tough row to hoe tonight, as my local eleven-year-old pointed out at breakfast this morning “I wouldn’t want to be Joe Biden tonight, because I’d have to make myself look stupid to avoid crushing Sarah Palin”.

Rachel Maddow talks about the unreliability of expectations and prognostications below. She won’t be surprised by a good Palin showing tonight.

Gwen Ifill, who moderated the VP debates last cycle, wrote a book that includes Barack Obama as an example of the progress that African Americans have made in America. The McCain campaign has been making a lot of noise in the last few days to the effect that she should be replaced. The point of that is not really to remove her, but to set up the spin room and the weekend chat following the debate.

If Palin manages to avoid babbling incoherently tonight she is going to look good relative to expectations. Expect the McCain campaign to come out with everything they’ve got to turn this debate into a trend changing event.

Biden is so unpredictable that anything could happen. One false move and Fox News will have the fodder they need to spend the next 96 hours making him the issue. The best advice I’ve heard for him was that he pretend Sarah Palin doesn’t exist and go after John McCain on foreign policy. If he can do this effectively, the perky Palin snark scheme might backfire.

Anonymous

I’m more than weary of the complaints about “gotcha reporters” who are picking on Sarah Palin. Has everyone forgotten that we’re talking about someone running for THE SECOND HIGHEST JOB IN THE FREAKING NATION? Anyone running for it should expect to be grilled. Anyone who expects to get it must have a steel backbone, able to withstand any pressure.

These are our own media representatives. If her handlers are afraid of them, what do they expect her to do if she ever has to negotiate with an enemy? Face it. Sarah Palin was not prepared for the Katie Couric interviews. If I were going to be on national television, you bet your bottom I would be prepared for anything.

You say, “But she was named only 5 or 6 weeks ago”? I don’t care. She needs to convince us that she is prepared to do the job, and being interviewed is an important part of convincing us. Having “Grandpa McCain” sit next to her, occasionally reprimanding the interviewer, as she (Palin) was being interviewed made her seem weak. (As an employer, would you hire someone who needed someone to protect him/her during the interview?) I assure you that Hillary Clinton wouldn’t have required such help.
Call em like he saw em

To set the tone for tonights Vice Presidential debate, a clip from a true American patriot,

George;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3uvTnd4OJM&feature=related

We surly miss him.
Anonymous

Here’s a clip from a true American idiot, someone I’ll miss like I miss hemorrhoids:
Kurm Udgeon

Thanks for sharing the Carlin segment. We DO miss him. I wonder how he might be reacting to all of this hype about low expectations of Palin. Does that mean if she doesn’t have to get back to us with an answer, and gives it right away, she wins.
Do the spinmeisters think that if god forbid, she became the President that Putin, or Ahmadinejad, or Chavez or Castro would cut her some slack. Has it really come down to the candidates with the lowest expectations, only have to show up to be considered the winners?

Where is Dan Quail when you need him?
Charles the Hammer

Kurm Udgeon, why do all your despots du jour:
Putin,
Ahmadinejad,
Chavez,
Castro,
and let’s not forget Kim Jong Il, he’d be upset,
openly support Obama? It must be because he’d promote the interests of the United States.
Diane C: Palien Alien

“Who are you and what have you done with ditzy Sarah Palin?” I’m waiting for a Mission Impossible moment where Dick Cheney whips off the rubber Palin face mask, reveals himself, and lets out a horrifying screach of devilish laughter. Talk about smokin’ out the evil-doers!
But honestly, she did pretty darn good, and her small-town-I’m-not-one-of-them charm is truly refreshing.
I don’t think either side wins or loses, just who makes the most compelling arguments on the issues you personally care about. Unfortunately for Ms. Palin, she cannot convince me that a vote for McCain is not just another 4 years of Bush, and my life and this country just cannot take that.
I shall now retire to watch the pundits point out both of their gaffes (not smart enough myself to pick them out at the time they happen!).
http://www.yourct.com Chris MC

Terrific debate.

Neither side failed, both sides succeeded in doing what they needed to do.

Palin came off with a few arguable exceptions as capable of holding the stage with the elite politicians of her time, at least on this particular night. She did nothing to reprise her role as the inept and uninformed caribou in the headlights we have been seeing. She did best when she was speaking thematically, and she faltered when she went in the direction of the pitbull with lipstick. I doubt anybody believes, however, that she wasn’t coached through her positions.

Biden demonstrated his command of the subjects discussed and articulated a clear difference between his ticket and his opponent’s, both in terms of the record and in terms of what they intend going forward.

I had not been considering what it was that Biden might actually accomplish tonight, other than not committing a gaffe that the Fox News machine could use. But watching the debate it became clear that Biden intended to establish their position and theme, and I think he did that.

No game changing event. Decision Biden. We’ll see what impact there is on polling come Monday or so.
Anonymous

Chris MC: Governor Palin’s greatest fault has been her failure to answer the questions that someone has asked her; rather, she often gives answers to some other questions that no one has asked. She no doubt prepped a number of answers, and she seemed determined to give them even when they didn’t address the questions.

When one looks past the rehearsed “folksiness,” a facade that I do not find charming, he sees a lack of substance. She isn’t ready.

All that said, Palin came across far better tonight than she did in the Katie Couric interviews. Unfortunately, Joe Biden did a great deal better with his command of so much information, including information about John McCain that Sarah Palin didn’t have because she hadn’t been prepped in it.

Biden wins and the McCain-Palin campaign continues to deteriorate.
Anonymous

You people seem to forget that the only “debate” and the only “poll” that counts is the one taken after 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.

Until then, anybody can say anything about how they’re going to vote. But in the privacy of the voting booth, what was SAID isn’t always how one VOTES in the end.
Anonymous

“Golly gosh darn, Prezzydint Ahmadinnyjod, we just can’t sit down ta woolgather until you decide ta take yer finger offa that nookular trigger!”

Right…
Anonymous

I’ll look for a slight uptick in McCain’s numbers owing to the fact that Palin probably staunched the hemorrhaging from his campaign. Overall, though, she was slippery and elusive behind the fake persona, and I believe the public knows that.

Biden was in command of the facts and the moment. The public will look at the two and see that there is no way that this woman, this charlatan, can be allowed within a heartbeat of the highest office in the nation.

Especially after the current occupant has soiled it with his folksy incompetence for the last eight years.
Anonymous

waah waah waah, #11 you’re cryin like a baby. Give it up, honey, life’s too short.
Anonymous

CNN/Opinion Research Corp. post-debate poll results:

51 percent of those polled thought Biden did the best job, while 36 percent thought Palin did the best job.

Respondents thought Biden was better at expressing his views, giving him 52 percent to Palin’s 36 percent.

On the question of the candidates’ qualifications to assume the presidency, 87 percent of those polled said Biden is qualified and 42 percent said Palin is qualified.

The candidates sparred over which team would be the better agent of change, and Biden came out on top of that debate, with 53 percent of those polled giving the nod to the Delaware senator while 42 percent said Palin was more likely to bring change.

CBS Post-Debate Poll results:

Forty-six percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed say Democrat Joe Biden won the debate, compared to 21 percent for Republican Sarah Palin. Thirty-three percent said it was a tie.

Eighteen percent of previously uncommitted percent say they are now committed to the Obama-Biden ticket. Ten percent say they are now committed to McCain-Palin.

After the debate, 66 percent see Palin as knowledgeable about important issues � up from 43 percent before the debate. But Biden still has the advantage on this � 98 percent saw him as knowledgeable after the debate. That figure was 79 percent before the debate.

Fifty-five percent say Palin is prepared for the job, up from 39 percent before the debate. Ninty-seven percent say Biden is prepared, up from 81 percent pre-debate.
Anonymous

This debate proved to be an equalizer of sorts. Prior to the debate, women were feeling insulted because John McCain and his party had thought them stupid enough to love their vice presidential candidate merely because of her gender. Now both men and women feel insulted by her “folksy” talk, referring to us common people as “Joe six-pack,” making her and her “maverick,” John McCain, seem to be just like us. I cringed every time I heard her speak like someone with far less command of standard English and every time I heard her drop the terminal “g” off the ending of a word. I’m not a snob and I make no such judgment of people who really do talk that way, but even those people should be offended that she was regarding them as too stupid to know that she was playing them. “You betcha!”

I was thoroughly impressed by Senator Biden’s knowledge of the facts, not only of his own party’s record, but even of the Republican record. I was thoroughly impressed by his mental quickness and by his composure. I was thoroughly impressed by the unfortunate dance he had to perform around debating a woman, but he did it very successfully. Mr. Biden, you did a great job.

Governor Palin, I expect you to have even greater popularity among those who have blindly supported you, even after your greatest blunders, but you are not fit for the job. Better luck next time.
Anonymous

Among undecided voters, she only got a 4% increase in those who said she was qualified to be president. Not what I’d call a fabulous result. Of course, when the expectations for the next potential VP are simply not to screw up, that says a lot about what the GOP is trying to ram down our throats.

No thanks. We’ve been living with Joe Six-Pack for eight long years, and found out that he’s a slob who makes big messes, expects others to clean up after him, spends money like a drunken sailor, can’t balance a checkbook, and is hated by all the neighbors.
Anonymous

I am an ordinary person, not by any means famous; I am middle America. That said, I am not Joe Six-Pack, and I am insulted that she thinks that I am that guy who goes home at the end of the day to his 6-pack of his favorite brew, sits in front of the television, and finishes one can after another, before falling asleep in the La-Z-Boy. That said, I do not talk the way Governor Palin talked, and I do not appreciate having her think that I could be swayed by that transparent persona that she assumed last night — transparent because she didn’t talk that way at the convention or during the Couric debates.

As is the case with the current administration, she apparently believes that she can live by her own set of rules, telling us at the beginning of the debate that she was going to answer questions the way she wanted to answer them, not the way she was expected to answer them. My assessment is that she meant that she would answer some by providing sound bites she had memorized, whether those sound bites satisfied the responses or not. There were others she didn’t answer at all.
akabi

Thats who they think we are.Joe or Jane six cups of coffee trying to stay awake thru our second job would have been more on the mark.The sad truth is most of both parties seem to think this way.
Kurm Udgeon

Are these two candidates and their running mates the best choices we have? Politics in this country seems to have taken the track so that the people with enough money, and the least amount of skeletons in their closets, get the brass ring. Either they, or those who have been around long enough that they get the lifetime achievement award for being able to put up with the Washington shit, and fool the most people most of the time.
I personally am disgusted with this process and being condescended to and spoken down to. I don’t even drink beer.
Wasilla via Fargo

Could this be the model Sarah Palin used for her “folksy” style – you betcha!
Anonymous

Doncha know she’s just gonna be doing a wood chipper number on those pesky mainstream libural media types, yah you betcha by golly!
anonymous

Palin spent the first half of the debate dodging the questions she didn’t know by faking anger and referring back to the energy question. How many times could we listen to her say the same thing about that! Then the second half she decided to go back into her cutesy role gosh darn it, and John McCain loves this country and he is going to take care of the American people, once again, dodging questions and avoiding giving any specific answers. I actually felt like I was watching Tina Fey, not Sarah Palin.
I blame the moderator for not forcing the issue more. Yes, Palin looked better than in the Couric interviews because Katie Couric actually asked for specifics and pushed her on topics. Obama’s camp should have insisted on a more unbiased moderator instead of someone who wrote a book on Obama because I think Palin took full advantage of the fact that the moderator couldn’t push or it would look like she was for Obama.
And I think Biden didn’t push or he would have come across as a bully. Have you ever been to a UCONN women’s basketball game? It is almost surreal how people seem to “adopt” these players. To some extent the same thing is happening with Palin. Some people feel protective of her so Biden had to play it carefully. He was smart to let the media and the American public point out her flaws after the debate. But let’s remember, we may want to protect and love our family, but we also realize, we know they aren’t qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America!
Anonymous

The Palin supporters ought to read the story about the child who finally had the courage to say that the emporer had no clothes. Sarah Palin has no business running for the vice presidency of our country, and John McCain has shamed himself and his party by selecting her. The so-called (largely self-professed) “man of honor” chose someone because of her gender, her outgoing personality and ability to deliver a speech, and her physical attributes. Aside from that, she so badly lacks both knowledge and integrity that we should all be embarrassed that other nations are witnessing this.

She embarrassed me with her speech and mannerisms last night, and she made a fool of herself. Were Joe Biden not on guard for the double standard (that she could attack him, but he had to be careful not to attack her because she is a woman), he would have chewed her up and spit her out. I know that most Americans saw through the charade.
Anonymous

I didn’t see anything from Norwalks Rep Committee they had a pizza party so what do they think Peperoni or onion?
Anonymous

You betcha! It’s the Sarah Palin Debate Flowchart: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-palin-debat.html
Anonymous

Why isn’t she talking to the people about this? Doesn’t the “straight-talking team” think it’s good to have everything above the table?

GOP lawmakers file appeal to halt Troopergate case
By MATT VOLZ (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
October 03, 2008 8:16 PM EDT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Six Alaska lawmakers filed an emergency appeal Friday asking the state’s Supreme Court to halt an investigation into abuse-of-power allegations against Gov. Sarah Palin before the findings are released next week.

The independent investigator conducting the probe plans to turn over his conclusions by next Friday to the Legislative Council, the body that authorized it. The six Republican lawmakers, who are not on the Legislative Council, claim the investigation is being manipulated to damage Palin before Election Day on Nov. 4.

Late Friday, the Supreme Court accepted the appeal and scheduled oral arguments for Wednesday in Anchorage.

The probe is looking into whether Palin, who is the Republican vice presidential candidate, and others pressured Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire a state trooper who was involved in a contentious divorce from Palin’s sister and then fired Monegan when he wouldn’t dismiss the trooper. Palin says Monegan was ousted over budget disagreements.

Five Republican lawmakers sued to block the investigation or remove its overseers and were later joined in their lawsuit by a sixth legislator. But the lawsuit was dismissed on Thursday by an Anchorage judge.

Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski said the Legislature has the ability to investigate the circumstances surrounding the firing of a public officer the lawmakers had confirmed.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Kelly Shackelford said Friday that Michalski overlooked the legislators’ assertion of bias and conflict of interest by the investigation’s overseers. He said that alleged bias violates a provision of the state constitution that says legislative and executive investigations cannot infringe on a person’s right to “fair and just treatment.”

The legislators are asking for an expedited appeal process so that a decision can be made by Thursday’s close of business.

Defense attorney Peter Maassen said the Legislature is free to conduct an investigation as it sees fit and the judge’s ruling confirmed the separation of power principles. An emergency appeal is unwarranted, he said, because by next Thursday the investigation will have already be completed – all that will remain will be to make its findings public.

“There’s been no time in history that a court has suppressed the outcome of a legislative investigation,” Maassen said.

Michalski also threw out a lawsuit filed by Palin aides seeking to dismiss subpoenas compelling their testimony in the investigation. The aides had argued that the subpoenas should not have to be honored because they should not have been issued.

It was not clear if those aides would join the appeal. Governor’s spokesman Bill McAllister said Attorney General Talis Colberg has not yet spoken with the aides since the ruling was made.

Palin pledged her cooperation with the probe until she became Sen. John McCain’s running mate. She has said through her lawyer that she only will cooperate with a separate investigation, one that she calls unbiased but is conducted in secret and can last for years.

Maassen represents Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, the Democratic project manager of the investigation; Sen. Kim Elton, Democratic chairman of the Legislative Council; the investigator, retired prosecutor Steven Branchflower; and the Legislative Council.

French said Sept. 2 that the results of the investigation could constitute an “October surprise” for the McCain campaign. He later apologized for the remark, but Palin’s lawyer has said the biased impression it created can’t be undone.