I was among hundreds in attendance of the AM1280 The Patriot debate event hosted and moderated by Mitch, Ed, John, and Chad. If you weren’t there last night, I would recommend you attend the Presidential debate event…there were still some empty seats…not a lot…but some. It was an optimal environment to view the debate and Sarah Palin gave cause more than once for the the crowd to go wild.
As for the debate, I haven’t surfed the mainstream media reactions of yet, nor did I listen to them last night. By design.
My take?
First a note on the Gwen Ifill controversy: Ifill kept her word. Her moderation was balanced and if anything, she leaned on Senator Biden a bit more than Governor Palin, at one point inflicting a glancing blow on Joe on a flip flop Palin had previously referred to, in an effort to encourage the candidates to actually answer the questions.
The quick and dirty: both candidates exceeded expectations.
Joe Biden was well-spoken, mostly polite and respectful, and for the most part resisted the urge to bloviate beyond his time slots. He was clearly coached by his handlers no less than the Governor. He was at times nervous, literally “hot under the collar”, at one point actually running his finger along the inside of his collar to relieve the pressure building in his neck. Was this a Richard Nixon moment? Probably not. If he were a Republican in this media environment? Front page stuff.
More notably, there were several instances where Senator Biden was “playing footsie” with someone in the audience, and not paying attention while Governor Palin spoke. The camera caught him snickering and fidgeting in a way that seemed to belittle Governor Palin while she wasn’t looking. At each instance, of which I think there were two or three, the spit screen that revealed his hijinks faded to Ifill or Palin alone as if the control room didn’t want to embarrass Biden. I will be interested to see if the media makes note of this in any way.
As for his Governor Palin, she faltered a couple times that were almost unnoticeable. She was confident in her posture and discourse and as the debate went on found more than one opportunity to deliver Joe a smackdown for his assertions that were contrary to his to his voting record or his debates with Senator Obama. Palin took the high ground more than once, and more than Biden.
Palin was also able to express her disdain for the federal government and Wall Street in a way that effectively captured the nation’s collective disgust.
At one point during the detonation of these Barracuda Bombs, while the crowd went wild at Trocadero, Senator Biden involuntarily smiled wide and shrugged; clearly as if to acknowledge “You got me there, sweetheart. Good one.”
Despite the same old weathered and worn political script from Joe Biden and a pointed and refreshingly incoriggible Sarah Palin, both sides got what they were looking for last night and will no doubt claim victory. Neither Biden nor Palin collapsed or fell victim to their storied weaknesses. Biden was not able to trip Palin up while she was clearly able to do so for him. As a bonus, she exhibited a comfortable claim on foreign and domestic policy issues to the extent of the scope of the debate.
Sarah Palin takes the win by slightly more than a narrow margin because she was on the offensive and exhibited just the posture and verve that endeared conservatives to her when John McCain introduced her to the American political scene.
…and just the Sarah Palin that we need to hear more from in the next thirty or so days.
Cross-posted at Shot in the Dark. Comments welcome.
