The VP Debate

Last night Sarah Palin did not crash and burn as some suspected, even hoped, she would. But even if she has rehabilitated herself to an extent, I doubt it was a game-breaker. What she proved in the debate with Biden was this: The Sarah who does not respond well to in-you-face-questioning is one aspect of her personality; and the Sarah who has a script to lean on can shine and sound reasonably coherent; that is another facet of who she is. She is not an impromptu speaker; spontaneity is not her forte. She is an actress, indeed, she was winking at the audience, hamming it up, very animated, and in touch with the charisma she knows is there, which can shine in the right circumstance. And by shine I mean she was centered and confident, self-contained and proactive, like she was in St. Paul. She put on quite an act as the down-home, folksy hockey mom who feels comfortable using colloquial expressions and thumbing her nose at all those highfalutin types who populate the government in Washington D.C. Unlike them, she is the salt of the earth. (She is also a fundamentalist Christian concerned with the evils witchcraft and the End of Days.) She let Gwen Ifill know her questions were optional. She would talk about whatever she wanted to; the important thing was to speak directly to the American people. So in essence she gave a variation on her stump speech, steering clear of specifics. She and McCain still lack a central argument and become more than a little blustery when talking about the economy and the financial crisis, which is fast upon us all. As for Joe Biden last night, he performed up to expectations, staying on the side of policy and nuance, history and specific solutions, without ever sounding too wonky or professorial. He was a gentleman throughout the debate. He made his points well, and according to the polls afterwards his knowledge of issues factor shot up from 79 % to 98%, and you can’t do much better than that. Her stats on the same issues also spiked, going from 39% to 55%. But she has a long way to go to persuade many Americans that she has the right stuff to be VP or president.

She did make some news last night, rather unexpectedly too. She said when she becomes VP she would work to expand the powers and responsibilities of the office. Since past is prologue, that idea, in post-Cheney times, could be a dangerous idea, especially with such an ambitious woman. She knows how appealing she is to the base and it seems to me she wants to capitalize on that. Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC said after the debate that she felt Palin was positioning herself for 2012. That could be.

To wet my finger and stick it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, I’d say the tide is turning in Obama’s favor. Charles Krauthammer, one of the country’s leading conservative columnists and a commentator on FOX NEWS, said today about Obama, “He has a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. That will likely be enough to make him president.” Obama is scoring better than McCain on the economic issues, which is the main engine driving his campaign right now.. Another indicator of progress is the fact McCain has pulled his people out of Michigan, conceding the state to Obama whose economic message hits home there where there is so much unemployment. McCain continues to flail about, zigzagging all over the lot. McCain’s other problem is temperament. His attitude at the first debate—angry, contemptuous, never looking at Obama, tense, and smirking a lot—did not sit well with some voters. The cool, calm, and collected attitude of Obama is winning people over. He seems more presidential.