Would-be VPs Go Toe to Toe

BU blogs the campaign

October 3, 2008
11
Twitter Facebook

It was the wily veteran versus the folksy newcomer. Joe Biden, with 35 years of senatorial experience, and Sarah Palin, an upstart governor of Alaska for less than two years, spent 90 minutes debating topics from energy policy to how America should deal with the threat of nuclear proliferation. Asking the questions was Gwen Ifill of PBS, who’d recently taken some heat from conservative commentators because of her forthcoming book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Unlike many VP debates from other recent elections, this one had garnered a lot of event hype. It got the BU bloggers up and posting "debate previews," including Bitter Pill, who wrote: "Tonight Alaska Governor Palin takes on Delaware Senator Joe Biden in a battle between the King and Queen of modern politics gaffes. Whether it’s asking a paraplegic man to stand up and take a bow or citing geographic proximity of Alaska to Russia as a basis of foreign policy credentials this pair is unlike no other. We are in for a rollercoaster ride."

In the runup to the debate, the expectations for how Palin would perform had plummeted after interviews with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, in which she served up one eyebrow-raising answer after another. Biden, likewise, has a reputation for gaffes, and in recent comments caught on tape and highlighted in a McCain campaign ad, he hadn’t disappointed.

But as the debate moved along, neither candidate followed the hype. Palin didn’t transform into a policy wonk, but she made repeated, personal appeals that emphasized the fact that she and her family were regular folk, outsiders to Washington, and in line with the maverick reputation of John McCain. She describe the Republican ticket as "a team of mavericks." Then she attacked Obama for not supporting American troops and for wanting to "quit on Iraq." Palin also positioned herself as a reformer. "Americans crave that straight talk," she said in rebuttal to Biden’s explanation of his 2002 vote to give President Bush authority to invade Iraq.

And contrary to Biden’s rambling rep, the Delaware senator was crisp, repeatedly hitting McCain as George W. Bush II. "He voted for deregulation and that is why we are in the crisis that we are in," Biden said of McCain, and later, "he has been no maverick on the issues that matter to people’s lives."

Here’s how the blogger at This Is My Party saw it: "Biden clearly looked more confident and polished, but I think Palin beat the low expectations that were laid out for her. She did start out rough, but got comfortable quickly. Biden didn’t seem to be taking it easy on her, either."

The contest had few killer one-liners, although The Whole Delivery clearly appreciated Biden’s description of the McCain economic plan as "the ultimate bridge to nowhere."
"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Biden with a great one, all time classic," wrote Whole Delivery. "That one will be remembered forever."

Actually, Biden may be remembered even more for getting emotional when talking about the car accident in 1972 that killed his wife and infant daughter. "I understand what it’s like," Biden said, making his own case for personal connections with the struggles of everyday Americans.

So, with the spin still spinning from the would-be veeps, BU bloggers are gearing up for the next presidential debate, just a few days away. And here, I steal the words of Bitter Pill: We are in for a roller-coaster ride.

Chris Berdik can be reached at cberdik@bu.edu.

  • Share this story
  • 11 Comments Add

Share

Would-be VPs Go Toe to Toe

Share

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 11 comments on Would-be VPs Go Toe to Toe

  1. “Oh no say it ain’t so Joe” “You betcha” Palin did better than any of you ever expected based on what you knew about her from taking points disseminated by the MSM!! Do you think it is time they stop trying to make her look bad? If you don’t you better remember this, no one ever looked good trying to make someone else look bad. IMHO it is time the Democratic party and the MSM stopped trying to paint this amazing young woman as incapable. Americans are faced with choosing liberty or the bread and circuses and bigger government that have offered for centuries to take power away from the people. We need to stop asking government to take care of us and start as Gov. Palin pointed out doing a better job of taking care of ourselves. Tell Obama “thanks but no thanks” for the bread and circuses he promises to bring you.

    Reply
    Link

  2. Can anybody even get through the first paragraph of this piece without detecting the obvious left wing bias? And it’s not just this piece, it’s every BU political piece I’ve read thus far this year. If the BU authors and editorial staff can’t report with balanced journalistic integrity then I vote we start sending these emails to our junk folder.

    Reply
    Link

  3. She is incapable. Completely. This isn’t a bloody popularity contest, it’s a presidential election. Folksiness is not a leadership quality and I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would vote for someone just because they seem like a nice person. She offered nothing resembling a coherent plan for…well anything, really. Her answers were one cliched party-line after another, interspersed with random allusions to her ‘normal’ but incredibly diverse–‘I have lots of gay friends! Really!’–family and social circle.

    I’m not saying Biden was particularly forthcoming himself but he clearly knew more about Obama’s policy then Palin knew about McCain’s. Possibly because Obama’s actually set out more concrete details about it then McCain has…

    Reply
    Link

  4. Palin’s performance proved that she can memorize and recite right-wing talking points with some degree of coherence, although she repeatedly demonstrated her unwillingness to answer questions put to her. Palin certainly proved that she is not quite as empty-headed as her interviews with Gibson and Couric seemed to reveal. Nevertheless, the two points that will certainly be remembered and replayed over and over again are NOT so flattering to McCain’s questionable choice for the VP slot. The two memorable points for me were as follows:

    (1) When Palin was asked about the role of the VP and Cheney’s own expanded role as VP, Palin not only indicated she approved of Dick Cheney’s expanded interpretation of the role of the VP, but she also indicated that if elected, she would seek even MORE POWER as VP! That’s just what we need–an imbecile who cannot even name ONE newspaper that she reads regularly who now wants even more power than Dick Cheney!

    (2) When Joe Biden spoke quite emotionally about raising his two sons alone for 5 years and watching in the hospital to see if they would ever recover from the critical injuries they sustained in the accident that took Biden’s wife and first daughter, Palin reacted by launching into another attack! It was quite a contrast to the gentlemanly restraint that Biden had maintained throughout the debate. One can only imagine what the reaction would be if the situation had been reversed. I suspect that we would now be reading Biden’s political obituary if he had shown such cold disdain and nastiness for such a revealing moment of emotion from his opponent.

    I do not doubt that Republican partisans will now defend Palin with a vengence, but as they go back through her debate performance, they might want to apply the same standards to their own candidate that they would apply to Palin if she were a Democrat.

    Given the polling following the debate, I suspect that the majority of viewers saw what I did–a women with little knowledge outside of her insulated world in Alaska who was very well-prepared to cite a laundry list of right-wing talking points, no matter what human emotion intervened or however incongruous some of those talking points might be (e.g., a rant about needing more regulation to combat thievery and corruption on Wall Street followed by a call for government to “get out of the way” [can you saw deregulation?] of American businesses). To Palin’s credit, her well-delivered script of talking points was just enough to keep her from being completely cast away from politics following the anticipated loss of McCain and Palin to Obama and Biden in November.

    Reply
    Link

  5. If doing well means reading notes and numbers from script, then Palin is a genius. When the expectations to be a VP to the United States run so low.?

    Reply
    Link

  6. It is not left-wing bias to say that one candidate (Biden) spoke about specific policies in some detail and the other candidate (Palin) spoke only in sound bites. Read the transcript and see.

    It is certainly one thing for the Governor to suggest that Senator’s Obama & Biden stop “looking backward”, but at no time in this debate did Governor Palin articulate ANY proposed policy of the McCain/Palin team, let alone give any details of any policy to support her sound bites charges.

    Actually, Senator Biden spoke more about Senator McCain’s policy’s than Governor Palin did – at one point mentioning Senator McCain’s proposed tax on employer paid health benefits and indicating Senator McCain’s proposed tax credit for health insurance premiums would not offset the tax on those premiums, let alone cover other health related costs (co-pays for one example). Governor Palin had no response or explanantion and immediately changed the subject back to her sound bites.

    And, in the end, probably not one voter changed their mind about who they plan to vote for.

    Reply
    Link

  7. #1) Did she answer ANY of the questions?

    #2) Did she answer any question, coherently?

    #3) Did she make any “darn tootin’ ” cogent points?! One ??! Not a soundbite, a logical, relevant POINT!?

    #4) Why the H-E-Double hockey sticks are we entertaining this embarrassingly unqualified person?

    I just decided that I will no longer hand in any of my programming assignments or take any BU exams, I’m just going to walk across the stage on graduation day!? Yeah, that’ll work. Palin needs to go look up the word debate. And wasn’t this suppose to be a moderated debate, shame on Gwen, she should have called her on evading more than half the questions… If you wanna just “preach” then by all means, pay for the ad!

    People seriously… this is not funny anymore.

    C’MON!

    Reply
    Link

  9. I agree with the article “Can anybody even get through” The writers of this paper are a bunch of champagne socialist snobs who look down at true middle America and its values. Palin is what this country is all about, and god bless her for it.
    The surge is working my friends, and i am sorry that Obama is cheerleading a failing economy and the deaths of American soldiers for his cynical political gain.

    How can you take this school or newspaper seriously?

    Reply
    Link

  10. I hate to break it to the right-wingers, but BU seems to be a somewhat left-leaning institution.

    The fact of the matter is that even without bias, Biden knew what the hell he was talking about, and Palin did not. She made several contradictions throughout the night any time she tried to talk about something besides her party’s talking points. Those talking points on her index cards are all she knows. She is trying (with her party) to convince Americans that MORE Republicans will somehow bring about change, but there was not a single reference made to SPECIFIC changes that would be made by this ticket. This is a ticket that claims to stand up for freedom and equal rights, but denies women certain freedoms (and I’m not just talking about abortion…look it up) and is at particular fault for the economic mess we’re in now. Every time I fill up my car’s tank when I’m back home in LA, I thank Bush and his cronies (with whom McCain is also great friends) for breaking my bank account yet again.

    She is the governor of a sparsely populated state and was mayor of a town that has fewer residents than there are students in BU’s CAS. In addition, if you look at her track record, she has not only led those places in a questionable manner, but has hired people to basically do her job for her.

    It was entertaining to hear her talk about “In Alaska this….In Alaska that….” Her experience is in Alaska. That’s it. How many of you have even BEEN?

    Palin (and the rest of her party for that matter) has no idea what she’s talking about. She doesn’t answer questions. For her it’s all a matter of portrayal. “I’m one of you out there watching!” Unfortunately this does not translate into qualification for the Vice Presidency.

    All the right-wing students reading and commenting are calling for “neutral” journalism; you just seem upset that the articles aren’t more right-winged because they aren’t friendly to your own personal views. But wrong is just wrong, and the Governor just couldn’t compete with the Senator, nor can she cut it as VP. Period. She doesn’t know or understand as much as anyone else in this race, even McCain, and her worldview is limited and centered around Alaska.

    This party is trying to put a band-aid on a shotgun wound in this country. Giving people $5000 to pay for health insurance and taxing those who get it from their employer? Giving more money to big business and none of regular people? They claim tax breaks but will actually hurt you if you’re not super wealthy. This has been evident with the Bush tax breaks and McCain’s are not significantly different.

    As far as the wars are concerned, it is clear that the Republicans have been dead wrong from day ONE. Many Dems and Independents supported the war, thinking we were off to find Bin Laden, who killed my friend’s uncle and my other friend’s father, and nearly killed my brother. Lo and behold….lies. This party is full of lies, as is this ticket. They have repeatedly lied about Obama’s and Biden’s track records “unapologetically,” to borrow Palin’s favorite word.

    I think the Republicans in charge of this country, including McCain, owe America a HUGE apology, frankly.

    I am pretty far to the left, but I actually considered McCain at the beginning of this race seriously. This woman is a joke, stop trying to make her look qualified. She’s no more qualified than Guiliani was to be President, and the American people figured that one out pretty quickly, too.

    Reply
    Link

  11. I really do not understand why people would be enthusiastic about either the democratic ticket or republican ticket. McCain and Biden have the most “experience”..but are completely ineffective and cannot get anything accomplished these days. Obama and Palin are grossly inexperienced and lack the knowledge about world affairs in order to be able to make the big decisions. We have all heard the pointless blather of Palin’s interviews…and if anyone has actually listened to any of Obama’s interviews, though articulate and intelligent he may be, he too is greatly lacking in the knowledge department. I’d like to see him run for this position 10-12 more years down the road.

    This political system is broken and this two party system is really hurting America. These presidential options we have are terrible, and more frustrated about having to vote for one of these guys I could not be.

    Reply
    Link

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today