Call Me
The Biden-Palin Debate
Ahhh finally the debate is over. And now it is time for the punditocracy to get to work.:)
(I will add a video of the debate as soon as it shows up on the web)
Here are my initial impressions:
- Both VP candidates were vastly more cordial and polite to each other than Obama and McCain, the presidential candidates were in their debate.
- At first blush, it seems that both VP candidates were thoroughly prepared for their debates. They both tackled the questions with a sufficient degree of knowledge. It helped that the format of the debate did not allow for direct exchanges between the candidates.
- In the days before the debate, the media was awash with unflattering clips of the Katie Couric interview with Governor Sarah Palin. As a matter of fact, the Tina Fey SNL caricature of Sarah Palin helped to impress on a lot of people the idea that the Alaska governor may not be up to the task. It didn't help either that some conservatives began to question the wisdom of her selection. So you had a situation where many Americans were already of the impression that the woman would be a disaster and were tuning in to see the latest gaffe she would make on the national stage. So after watching this 90 minute debate where she reasonably held her own and did significantly better than she had done in previous interviews, I think that whoever it was that masterminded the lowering of expectations with regards to Palin ought to be congratulated for a successful strategy. She came out of this debate relatively unscathed. In some quarters, that may count as a win.
- I do not know what standards the media or pundits are going to use to assess who won the debate. But if it were left to me, I'd say that on the issues of the debate, Biden showed a greater mastery of the issues and was vastly more persuasive and substantive. Palin on her part was folksy but she was more or less regurgitating her campaign's rhetoric. Other than that, she merely spoke in tortured abstractions or simply went straight to talking about the issues she felt she was sufficiently coached on to talk about. When she was not doing that, she was trying out some attack lines—attacks that Biden calmly and methodically handled without appearing obnoxious.
- As a matter of fact, after having seen Barack Obama, John McCain, Joseph Biden and Sarah Palin in a debate session, I can confidently say that Biden impressed me the most. He was as methodical as he was charming; he was much more gracious to his opponent than McCain was to his opponent—even when Sarah Palin kept throwing barbs his way; he was more than anything else very, very specific with his points in making the average American understand the critical issues they face in this election unlike Palin who spoke in mostly vague terms.
Obama and McCain have another debate coming up on Tuesday of next week. Biden delivered in a huge way for Obama tonight as he did not have any gaffes at all and more importantly, he stayed on the message even while pressing home, in an urgent fashion, the desperate need for change. One hopes that Obama has learnt a thing or two from Biden as he gets ready to debate McCain the second time around.
Elections are not usually decided by presidential debates, but if Obama fails to inspire confidence in his abilities and capacity to lead in the mind of ordinary Americans (especially those Americans in battleground states) by his multitude of gracious, timid and deferential agreements with the things McCain says, then he will be doing himself a world of harm. That is because, if majority of the people get the idea that Obama has good intentions but no experience, and is moreover ready to agree with McCain who seems a lot more pushful and assertive, in the end, when they go to vote, they will be pulling the lever for a candidate they've known for the longer period of time.
Hey you, if you have not registered to vote yet, what in the world, are YOU waiting for huh? November 4 is almost here!!
