The VP debate - a postmortem
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Joe Biden
- Senator Joe Biden held his own during the debate and appeared knowledgeable and sincere in most of his responses. He had an emotional moment and almost choked while talking about raising his two children. He became a single parent when his wife died soon after he was first elected to the Senate. It showed a different side of Biden, a single parent who has seen the struggles of raising two kids, one of whom is soon to be sent to Iraq.
- Barack Obama’s policies and plan for the country were constantly reinforced during the debate and senator biden was ready with rebuttals for most factual inaccuracies being thrown by Palin. However, senator biden’s rebuttals were precise and to the point and did not appear to bully Palin, which had been a concern prior to the debate.
- Senator Biden was clear in attacking John McCain on several policy issues including the war on Iraq, McCains deregulation of health care for Americans, McCain’s voting record on key energy and economic legislations.
- In response to the question about the powers of the Vice President and the role the VP plays in America, senator Biden appeared knowledgeable and educated and clearly connected the responsibilities of the VP to the role laid out by the constitution. He made his stand clear on the current VP, Dick Cheney’s, calling him “the most dangerous Vice President in American history”. Palin on the other hand wanted more powers for the VP!
- The one weakness in Biden’s performance was the lack of eye contact with the camera and thus the people watching the debate. Governor Palin did a far better job of speaking directly to the camera.
- On the Maverick
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“Look, the maverick — let’s talk about the maverick John McCain is. And, again, I love him. He’s been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people’s lives.
He voted four out of five times for George Bush’s budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he’s got there.
He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against — he voted including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan, when he voted in the United States Senate.
He’s not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.
He’s not been a maverick on the war. He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.
Can we send — can we get Mom’s MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can’t — we can’t make it. How are we going to heat the — heat the house this winter?
He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.
So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.”
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Sarah Palin
- The expectations from Palin, after the interview with Katie Couric, were few going into the debate. The big worry for the McCain campaign and her supporters was she launching into one of her gibberish “plans for the country” by mixing all the talking points into one incoherent, incomprehensible sentence as she had done with her interviews with Couric. With expectation so low, she fared far better that most people expected her to perform. Therein lies a fundamental problem in the McCain-Palin ticket that bar for the VP nominee has been set so low.
- Palin was quite transparent in switching her answers to talking points in her notes. On more than one occasion, she ignored the moderator’s question and proceeded to talk about energy when clearly a more direct response was expected.
- The Alaska governor did a good job of looking into the camera for most part of her answers and kept eye contact with the viewers, something Joe Biden failed to do through the debate.
- A lack of knowledge about the constitution - Palin displayed her lack of knowledge on several issues but nothing was more shocking than her view about the role of the vice president. She agreed with Dick Cheney that “we have a lot of flexibility in there” under the Constitution. And she declared that she was “thankful that the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president also, if that vice president so chose to exert it.”
- The Constitution does not state or imply any flexibility in the office of vice president. It gives the vice president no legislative responsibilities other than casting a tie-breaking vote in the Senate when needed and no executive powers at all. The vice president’s constitutional role is to be ready to serve if the president dies or becomes incapacitated.
- Attacks: Palin was quite bold in attacking both Biden and Obama during the debate on several issues - tax cuts, the iraq war, energy policy and healthcare.
- Outright lies
- Tax policies: The McCain-Palin ticket has constantly issued ads claiming Obama’s tax policies resulting in higher taxes. This was brought up by Palin in the debate as well. It has been proven time and again, through various independent sources, as a false representation of the Obama tax plan. Under Senator Obama’s plan, only incomes higher than $250,000 will see an increase in taxes. 95% of the working class americans will not see a tax increase. In addition, senator Obama plans to close the loopholes that allow corporations to set offshore accounts to reduce the taxes they owe to the federal government.
- Bankrupcy laws: John McCain does not support changes to bankruptcy laws that would allow bankruptcy courts to readjust, not just the interest rate on mortgage but also the principal. Even the McCain campaign acknowledges that he does not support those changes to bankruptcy laws. Palin, however, claimed otherwise and said John McCain supports these changes.
We think Biden appeared the more knowledgeable VP pick and did a better job providing answers to questions asked. Palin appeared more connected with the audience with constant references to Joe six pack and her soccer mom stories. However, there were several factual inaccuracies in Palins calims about the Obama-Biden ticket and on most occasions, she evaded the questions being asked and answered with talking points from her notes. Palin did better than her previous interviews but Overall, we thought the debate belonged to senator Biden.
