Anybody watching the debate?

Danalana wrote: I'm impressed, so far.

luvbug00 replied: allow me to express my thoughts in song.....
( to the tune of buffalo springfields " stop hey....")

stop hey what's that sound? look at Biden going daaaahowwwwn!!!"


*holds out dingey hat*
thank you , donations welcome.

mammag replied: I'm so proud of her. It was actually a really good debate. I also have to say, I'm glad that Gwen IFill was non-partisan for the evening. That was much more interesting to me than the Presidential debate.

I thought it was especially cool when she called him on saying he would like to run as VP for McCain.

HuskerMom replied: I thought it was pretty good.

boyohboyohboy replied: I noted a few things..I thought it was nice to see these two people act very civil to one another..and they were more then just polite..

I also thought she answered some of the questions that people have critized her for not answering specific enough in the past.

I thought she portraid herself as very self confident and made me feel more confident in her.
I am sure she was nervous. but it didnt show.

I also heard the news afterwards saying she messed up on a few names, but frankly that isnt a concern to me..
for example, as a nurse, I cant cure anyone..but I have the resources at my finger tips to help diagnosis and cure anyone..
same as she would if she were to have the position of vp..she would have resources to help her with any issues like foreign affairs that she needs help with.

as I am sure anyone does.

I thought she was more specific in her agenda then Biden.

I enjoyed watching it..
wonder why they never do a debate with all 4 canidates together?

PrairieMom replied:
OMG could you imagine? It would take forever, none of them can just give a simple answer. It would be hours and hours of people talking in circles.

I think they both did good, although, there were times when neither of them answered what they were asked. That is annoying.

Danalana replied: I loved it If something happened to McCain, I honestly would feel comfortable with her at the reigns. No, I don't say that because she is a woman
I am impressed with Palin as a speaker. I particularly loved it where she loved answering the hard questions in front of the American people, before the media has a chance to spin it. I think she is a straight-talker, and I feel even better about my choice after this debate.

my2monkeyboys replied: I agree - it made me feel even better about my choice.
I loved the debate, thought it was informative and entertaining - loved it when she said, "Say it ain't so Joe...."
She's so informal and straight-shooting, even in the small areas I don't totally agree with her.
I also think the moderator did a good, impartial job.
Overall I enjoyed watching it thoroughly.


ETA: I was surprised to hear Biden say that he is not in support of gay marriage -- I thought he would at least say he is, even if he isn't. I thought that was standard among democrats.

Nina J replied: I didn't watch it as I'm not American. I don't really know much about either candidate, only what my countries media says. Most people I know are afraid of Palin because of her gun thing. But, I think we are a gun fearing place, lol. Here you can go to jail for failing to secure a weapon. There is a mother and father who were charged because they didn't secure a gun properly and their teenage son was playing with and accidently got killed. So now they're going to go to court, I think it is something like 3 years if found guilty.

jcc64 replied:

Were we watching the same debate???? In what way was she ever once specific?
I thought on style, Palin was flawless. She recaptured her spunk and charisma- I thought she was very successful at portraying herself as a down-to-earth Washington outsider. On substance, I give her a big fat F. I can't stand platitudes and hollow rhetoric, and if you boiled that and her winning personality out of her speech there wasn't much left. She said she's committed to the importance of education, several times saying, "We've got to ramp up education." What does that really MEAN? What programs have you supported, what is your specific philosophy, where are you planning on getting the $$ to pay for this "ramping up?" and what are you going to do with it? (A little aside, the fed gov't only funds about 10% of education spending, the vast majority coming from the states, so I don't know why any of them feel qualified to insert themselves into education policy in the first place). Evasiveness is a common trait for all politicians, but when you have someone as new to the national stage as she is, and someone who has so far been made unavailable for questions from all but 2 reporters, then it becomes imperative that she lay it all out very specifically. She did not do that.
As for Biden, I thought he was an effective debater and was very efficient at shooting down Palin's misinformation and distortions. On style, I thought he was measured and disciplined, a little too much so. All in all, he came off sounding very old school, in short, like a typical slick politician.
As evidenced by our own little discussion here, I'd say no minds were changed. The people that liked her before, still do, and the people that didn't, still don't.

luvbug00 replied:
that was the nail in the coffen to his campaign in my opinion.

Danalana replied: And isn't it strange that Biden supported McCain RIGHT BEFORE he got on the ticket? (he didn't dispute that)
AND does anybody find it creepy that Biden's face doesn't move when he tries to make facial expressions?

TheOaf66 replied: I agreed with Palin stating that Biden keeps looking in the past and comparing Mccain to Bush. When Palin said that there is no evidence of looking in the future and change as he states I thought "oh Burn"

Also when she cornered him on his being for the war then against it and he said "I was never for it" and she said "I listened to the debate tapes and yes you did support it"

She just highlighted his "Politician-ness"

lisar replied:
Yes I am looking for answers on that now to prove it. But I think they both did a decent job on the debate. I personally think Palin made some better statments especially about education.

jcc64 replied:

Those who don't acknowledge or reflect upon the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them.

There's nothing more for me to say. Everyone on this thread who has gushed about Palin's performance was committed to the ticket before the debate. The people the Republicans need to sway are the independents, and according to this morning's polls, for whatever they're worth, independents gave the debate to Biden by a wide margin.

TheOaf66 replied:
she did say there were mistakes made in the current administration and put forth the ideals to change and learn from them. So she did acknowledge that where as Biden just kept harping on how Mccain and Bush are the same person in his eyes. He can't wrap his head around the fact that maybe just because Mccain is Repub that he might go a different direction than Bush did. Obama seems to be locked in on the fact that he is Democrat and he can only go with the policies set by his party.

Palin is trying to go against the grain a bit and change the errors made by the Bush administration

lisar replied:
I like how she kept saying take the politics out of it and just do it. I wish it were that easy though.

Danalana replied: Me too...I hate politics.

luvmykids replied:
That always goes both ways, those who are railing her performance were anit-Palin before the debate, too.

jcc64 replied:

If you can find me some concrete evidence where McCain veered off the Bush agenda during the last 8 yrs, I'm all ears.

jcc64 replied:
True that, Monica. We're not the people who matter to either campaign right now, which is what I said earlier.

TheOaf66 replied:
i was saying that is a possibility but Biden just assumes that he will follow in the same footsteps Bush walks now and that is just generalizations and assumptions. His whole platform was "Do you want another 4 yrs run like Bush did" that is my point.