The Veep Debate

Obviously, I think Biden won.  He was gracious, informed, informative, and overall, he's right on the issues.  Time after time, he corrected Palin (note no response to his charge that the "vote against" standard she used was "bogus") and Palin had to tactily concede the point.  You may also have noticed that Palin was ignorant of the tragic accident that robbed Biden of his first wife and infant daughter.  Even after he mentioned it (noting that Palin was the sexist here, not Biden), she did not acknowledge it.  Callous would be a good word.  

That said, Palin acquitted herself much better than I thought she would.  She gave the same mini-speech many times, but didn't go off the deep end like her Couric interviews did.  

Tactically, it is clear that the Palin/McCain ticket wants to say "we are different than Bush".  It is also very clear that they can not articulate one way that their administration would be different/better than the Bush's.  

The biggest thing on the foreign policy front is a semantic difference that I think is important: Palin uses "Fight" and Biden uses "Work".  This is key.  Palin talked about a passion for foreign policy.  McCain can only talk about all the preconditions Iran would have to meet before diplomacy can even start.  Iran is not going to kowtow to the US.  If we engage with Iran, we have a chance at some headway.  Not engaging = path to war. 

Last time I checked, war was not good.  Choosing a path that leads only to war is not good either; it's also stupid.  We did that with Iraq, see?  It wasn't really helpful.

I would have voted for McCain in 2000.  I was on the straight talk express.  But he's not the same guy any more.  And he has nothing substantive to offer.  Compare Obama's energy plan and McCain's.  One is unrealistic (McCain's plan has a ridiculous call for 45 new nuclear powers plants and no plan to make that happen) and the other has specifics where possible (require all vehicles to have flex fuel capability) and a plan to figure out the right specifics (new nuke plants require figuring out waste disposal first).  

Sorry, that was rambling.  I'm excited to get my ballot - I'll be voting early and often this season.