Debate Reaction

1. There could not have been a greater contrast in personal style than Mama Palin vs. Botox Joe. Biden was every bit the slickster D.C. insider. The incongruity of his claims to be a regular guy combined with his hair plugs, his Botox, his plastic surgery, and the pancake makeup applied with a trowel underscored his essential phoniness and poseur status. Palin by contrast appeared to be what she is---a regular person who has attained high office by solving problems and appealing directly to the people.

2. The first 20 minutes of the debate were nerve-wracking because McCain clearly had Palin on a tight leash regarding the economy. How she resisted the urge to beat Biden's brains in on the Democrat corruption which created the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle is beyond me. Watching her have to Stepford Wife the "corruption and Wall Street greed" line, over and over, was akin to watching the guy in "Bat 21" blink out "Torture" in Morse code while reciting North Vietnamese propaganda.

3. Once the talking points were dispensed with, Sarah let loose on Biden, correcting him, lecturing him, and outclassing him on every point.

4. Nobody cares about statistics. Nobody remembers statistics. Every time a pol spews out statistics they're trying to garner cheap gravitas from the Left Wing Media which considers recitation of numbers from a piece of paper to be the highest form of intellectual accomplishment. After all, it is in their world, right?

5. Nobody cares about anecdotes. Biden invoking Joe Blow at the Pickle Barrel doesn't fool anybody. We don't know Joe Blow, and given Biden's track record at making stuff up, he probably doesn't either.

6. Biden continues to lie. Outright lie. How he gets away with claiming Barack Obama never said he would sit down with Ahmadinejad when Obama did so in a Democrat debate seen by an enormous number of Americans is a testament to Left Wing Media bias.

7. Ifill asked every question from the Left and avoided asking some of the most salient questions altogether. Given all the press Palin's family has gotten, and given the hot water Biden got into with the Catholic Church over his comments, why no abortion question? I'll tell you why---if abortion is an issue Obama loses the election, and Ifill loses a lot of money.

8. Biden is not only disingenuous but a complete dunce. A guy who's been in the Senate 35 years and who claims some experience in the law really ought to know that Article I of the Constitution deals with the legislative branch, not the executive, and that the vice president indeed does have a legislative role---casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate and acting as an officer of the Senate. Given how recently the Senate was divided 50-50 Biden of all people ought to realize this. He's stupid, and the Left Wing Media's even dumber than he is for not calling him on it. Were they not so completely in the tank for his boss, that is.

9. Anyone who wants to know whether or not McCain's a maverick need only look at the American Conservative Union ratings. McCain's lifetime ACU rating---82.6. Obama's 7.67. Biden's 13.04. That means that McCain bucked the GOP base 17.4% of the time, significantly more than Obama or Biden have. Moreover, McCain has picked famous fights with his party and with its various Presidents---name one time Obama or Biden fought the Democrat Party. There is no doubt who the "maverick" is here. For her part, Palin unseated a Republican governor and head of a formidable political machine in Alaska. Show me where Biden or Obama ever did either.

10. McCain had better take the gloves off against Obama. Obama's a bare-knuckle machine pol who has advanced by getting his opponents disqualified. He will say and do anything to get elected and he knows the Left Wing Media will not say a word against anything he does. McCain cannot win on style points. He has to win on substance and he has to appeal directly to the voter without the media filter as Palin has done.