Maggie's Farm

 
Game Play

• I was very disappointed with Biden's voice.  It sounded raspy, like he'd spent too much time practicing for the debate, or maybe he had a slight cold.  That timbre in his voice that I like so much just wasn't there.
   
• He came right out of the box with a gigantic lie and blamed Bush for the current financial crisis.  I didn't think much of it until...
   
• Palin came out of the box and promptly blamed it on the lenders!  What she ditn't do was lay the blame squarely where it belongs, on Clinton's shoulders.  She referred to the lenders using words like "corruption", whereas it was the lenders who were the victims in all this.  It was Clinton and his Congress who expanded that whatever act and forced the lenders to open their doors to riskier buyers.
   
• She was wearing much better makeup than her speech at the convention.  Somebody really blew it there.  She has a wide jaw to begin with, and at the convention it almost looked like she had jowls.  They darkened her cheeks and really slimmed them down tonight.
   
  Makeup crew: +1
    
• Palin's second lie (if slightly disingenuous) was when she went rambling on about asking average people at the local soccer game how they're doing, and how everyone is "fearful" and "worried" and "afraid for their families" and all the rest.  (to his credit, Biden then did the same thing, although his average people were even more worried and fearful and afraid for their families and-)
   
  News flash for all politicians: This "average American" you're talking about barely even knows there's an election going on, much less is thinking that putting a different yokel in the White House is actually going to change anything in his life.  He's still going to earn his same old salary and things are still going to be too expensive.  Any other questions?
   
• Palin's actually stumping.  She's raising both the volume and pitch of her voice and capturing the camera's attention by looking directly at it.  This'll probably be a bone of contention in the post-debate articles.  Some will call it 'grandstanding', others will say she did the right thing by talking directly to the people.  Although, personally, I'd prefer the person address the moderator, I agree it was a smart tactical move on Team Sarah's part.  As I said in my pre-debate post, all people needed to do was see she wasn't the witch their favorite columnist, talk show host or blogger was making her out to be, and she certainly satisfied on that score.
   
• This thing about Alaskans deserving part of the oil profits is quite interesting.
   
  Just curious, but has anyone asked just why they deserve this money?
   
  If you heard some paper company was starting to log a small section of forest in the northeast corner of your state, would you feel you were entitled to some of the proceeds because you live in the same state?
   
  Say, what's that word for someone who uses political power to take profits from the rich and distribute them to the poor?
   
  Didn't they try that in Russia?
   
• Palin's third lie: polar bears are dying by the thousands and we only have days left to act.  She believes global warming is real and — regardless of its cause — "must be dealt with."  She proves that by being in favor of carbon caps.
   
  Excuse me while I throw up.
   
• When asked about the party's "exit strategy" in Eye-rack, wouldn't it have been great if Palin had said, "What, you kiddin' me?  We're in a war, Gwen, and only a blithering idiot would suggest having what you call an 'exit strategy' during a time of war.  Next question, please!"
   
• Strategically, probably the best move on Team Sarah's part was turning Obama's "I agree with John" from last week around and making it "I'm glad we agree."  Sarah used it twice tonight for good effect. and then later used "I'm sorry we don't agree, Joe..." to even better effect.
   
• Nice to hear everybody's so gung-ho to tidy up Darfur, isn't it?
   
  Say, anyone heard from Rwanda lately?
   
  Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I have to go spend this million-dollar bill on a loaf of bread so I can feed my Zimbabwean family for a day.
   
• As far as bias from Ms. Moderator goes, I only saw one instance, and I don't really know if it's bias.  The question is, is it normal to ask vice-presidential candidates what they'd do if #1 kicked the bucket?  If it is, then never mind.  If this was the first time the question had been asked, it was a deft move on the moderator's part.  Given how it exposed both McCain's age & health and Palin's inexperience, I thought she handled it quite well.
   
• And the threat?  It was when Sarah was talking about the VP exercising his or her rights in the Senate.  Traditionally, the VP doesn't do much more than vote to break ties, but they're endowed with slightly greater powers than that, and Sarah was basically saying, "Y'all be good, now, boys, in case we win this thing -- or you just might have Mama Palin lookin' over your shoulders."  The reason I called it 'dangerous' is because it's pretty brazen for a newbie to be threatening the Old Guard, but if they win, she won't be 'new' for long.
   
  One of the few moments that Biden really showed any passion was his quickly dousing the flame she lit.  I doubt most pundits even caught the threat, much less recognized its import — but Biden certainly did.  It'll be interesting to see if any of them mention it.  I'll see if I can scrounge up the clip and post it.  It was pretty cool.
   
• As these things go, it was somewhat unfair that they ran overtime.  Biden started his wrap-up right at the 10:30 mark.  The network will get bitched at, but no real harm done.  The wrap-ups are just a string of platitudes.

I think the pundits will call it a draw, with a leaning toward Sarah because she didn't make any major gaffes (that I heard).  They both stumbled over a few words, both had their fair share of 'uhs', and, most importantly for Sarah, there weren't any deer-in-the-headlight moments.  She made sure to say aloud something like "I have to correct you, Joe" a few times, just to make sure the teacher-student label didn't get slapped on the event, another smart move by Team Sarah.

I think umpteen zillion women tuned in, maybe just for a few moments, and saw what they wanted and needed to see.  It made what they'll have to do November 4th a lot less painful.