I only managed to catch a relatively small part of the debate as well as some of the “expert” commentary afterwards but there were a couple of standout points I wanted to comment on. First, Palin will mostly likely be declared the winner by virtue of the fact that she didn’t embarrass herself the way she did in the Couric interview. It’s pretty sad that not making a complete ass of yourself like you did only days earlier is seen as winning but that’s what passes as expert analysis these days.
Also, Palin tried labeling Obama as wrong on Iraq and the surge while the magnificently prescient McCain got it right but when Biden pointed out each and every error that Bush made regarding the war and how McCain marched in lock step with the president virtually the whole way, all of a sudden examining past errors became “finger pointing” according to Palin. She’ll no doubt be heralded as a “maverick” for throwing Bush under the bus by pointing out all the “blunders” that were made but somehow pointing out that McCain agreed with those blunders is unworthy of someone campaigning for change. Palin remarked on how they would learn from past mistakes but failed to mention how that would be achieved without actually admitting to any. According to Palin, change is about looking to the future, a nice sounding phrase but completely without meaning. How can you possibly change anything if you’re not willing to examine what it is you want to change? In fact, this is nothing more than the classic hypocrisy that has marked the entire McCain campaign. McCain has agreed with Bush on every major issue even to the point of contradicting himself like with the Bush tax cuts, while simultaneously distancing himself from Bush and selling himself as an agent of change. It would be comical if it didn’t appear to be actually working.
The last point I wanted to bring up was how, after Biden attempted to spin his vote authorizing the Iraq war, Palin remarked how she didn’t quite understand how Washington insiders worked, specifically how those like Biden were “in favor of the war until they were against it.” But in fact Palin has demonstrated that she knows exactly how it’s done when she was in favor of the “bridge to nowhereW” until she was against it. I have no problem with Biden being taken to task for voting for the war, everyone who voted for the war, especially Democrats, need to be held accountable but for Palin to claim the moral high ground is absurd to the extreme after repeatedly lying about opposing the bridge, even after her lies were exposed, not to mention that she took the money even after the bridge project went down in flames. Actually, Palin would fit right in with the Beltway political class.
–Paul Wilden