Damn it, Joe, how the hell can you be against five pounds of sugar for the low price of $1.39? You offer a bleak vision of America, Senator.
I’m not sure whether “The Newspaper for New Jersey” was going for surrealist humor or not, but here you go. In any event, liveblogging starts here at the top of the hour.
8:45: Sarah Palin, and not a bag of sugar, has arrived at the fieldhouse on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.
9:00: Keith Olbermann analogizes this matchup to the most recent Super Bowl. Whether Gov. Palin will have to catch any projectiles against her head is unknown.
9:03: Away we go with the bailout. Biden starts rolling with the platitudes — bipartisanship under pressure, protecting taxpayers,
and so forth. It’s a solid if unexciting opening.
9:05: Palin talks semi-intelligibly about the impacts of the crisis on average Americans, then tells us all how awesome McCain is. This is likely to get ugly.
9:07: Biden hypes up his work in Bosnia. Really? Also, drink everytime you hear the words “McCain said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.”
9:08: Palin ignores all known texts on economics by again throwing that “by fundamentals, he meant workers” trope out there.
9:10: Good lord, she’s staring directly at me. Please stop. By the end of this debate, I’ll be so full of folksy wisdom that Norman Rockwell will spew from every orifice of my body.
9:11: Biden, “self-regulating themselves” is a bit redundant.
9:13: The black man will raise your taxes! Slightly stale here.
9:15: Oh no. Biden brought, y’know, facts. Palin says she won’t answer questions the way Biden and Ifill want her to answer them.
By that, she means that she insists on rambling about whatever she so chooses instead of addressing policy questions.
9:17: Biden parrots Democratic talking points on increasing the progressivity of income taxes. Palin hits back surprisingly convincingly by saying that many of the “wealthy” are small business owners,
then rolls into a standard anti-universal health care line.
9:20: And Biden just plain takes her apart in a wonky fashion.
9:21: “That’s the ultimate Bridge to Nowhere”?? -1, Senator.
9:23: John McCain never panders. Really, Sarah? I think not.
9:25: Sarah Palin: I never promised you stuff. Vote for me!
9:26: Biden turns an awesome trick around and points out that Palin did for Alaska, in terms of a windfall profits tax, what Obama would do for the country. Well done.
9:28: Obama knew exactly how horrible the whole subprime mortgage crisis would be — before it happened. Vote for Crystall Ball Man!
9:30: East Coast Politician! Run away! Sarah Palin: Energy independence = oil well in every backyard.
9:31: Palin stumbles her way through a climate change question and tries to not hate science.
9:33: Joe Biden, again, cites vote counts to try and outflank down-homeness, then makes the case for alternative energy sources.
9:34: Palin: We’re “so, so hungry” for energy. Also, she supports a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade market — a long-held belief that materialized five weeks ago.
9:37: Same-sex benefits. I think you know their views. Palin protests too much and basically says “I have gay friends!”
9:39: Foreign policy! Palin supports the surge, then drills Biden on his own opposition to an Obama vote against unconditional war funding. She seems … cogent.
9:41: Biden says exactly what you would expect from a proponent of Iraq withdrawal.
9:42: Palin: “Your plan is the white flag of surrender.” Well that’s the line of the night.
9:43: She resolutely refuses to look at Biden … even when talking about him. Repeatedly.
9:46: Biden rolls out a very forceful defense of Iraq, then Obama’s focus on Pakistan.
9:47: Nuke-you-lar. Mmmph. Not surprisingly, Palin says Iran is a bigger problem.
9:48: Palin is repeating GOP talking points as well as anyone, but … the sentence structure and style tells you that there’s no analysis behind them.
9:50: Biden against points out that Ahamadinejad doesn’t really run Iran’s military.
9:51: “McCain wouldn’t meet with the government of Spain.” What?
9:52: Palin says two-state solution (but with our embassy to Israel in Jerusalem? hm).
9:54: Biden seems to defend Israel even more strongly than Palin, who is desperate to accentuate points of agreement at every opportunity.
9:56: Biden says McCain=Bush at least 317 different times.
9:57: If Obama actually said about Afghanistan what Palin said he said … well, that might be a problem.
9:59: Biden again does the whole pointing and talking slowly thing when he wants people to pay attention. I can’t say I’m a fan … especially when he sounds angry doing it.
10:00: Palin knows who our commander in Afghanistan is. Honestly,
I didn’t. Color me vaguely impressed. (Oops. McKiernan, not McClellan.) She actually visibly knocked Biden back a bit in defending the idea of a surge there.
10:02: Biden flashes his foreign affairs cred in pacifying, um, Bosnia. How 90s retro. He then goes on to call for no-fly zones over Darfur, which … well, it’s not like Sudan has a vast air force, do they?
10:04: Toxic levels of folksiness! Danger, Will Robinson!
10:05: Divestment! Well that’ll solve everything, won’t it?
10:06: Biden takes apart Palin’s assertion that he backed McCain’s initial approach in Iraq, which leads to a sputtering response that basically slaps a “citation needed” tag on his reply.
10:08: Ifill: So how would you two differ from your running mate’s policies if he died in office? Biden launches into endless talking points after a boilerplate “God forbid” preface, though he says this is the most important election since 1932. Hmmm.
10:10: Wasilla has a Main Street! Awesome. Palin says she’ll keep lobbying McCain on ANWR, then also launches into talking points.
10:11: Biden channels Reagan: Are you better off than you were eight years ago? Also, lots of shout-outs to towns in Delaware.
10:12: Palin … also channels Reagan. “There you go again, Joe.” Interesting. And then she does her own shout-outs up to the Arctic.
10:13: Why are you two here? Neither of you wanted to be VP. What will you do there? Palin will … break ties in the Senate and lobby for McCain’s opinions. You don’t say. Biden says he’ll be a straight-shooter.
10:16: Ifill circles back and asks Palin about the scope of her potential powers, asking if she’ll be like Cheney on that score. Palin dodges.
10:17: Biden attacks Cheney and the whole unitary executive theory … but said that Article I of the Constitution covers the executive branch. Not so much.
10:18: Palin … talks about how awesome American middle-class life is … and quotes Reagan again. It’s becoming clear that the McCain campaign has managed expectations mind-blowingly well, because this debate has been a draw so far.
10:20: Biden replies to the lame “What is your greatest weakness?” question by … saying that he’s a single mother. Fair enough.
10:23: Palin gave her closing statement a bit too early, then Biden takes a whack at the maverick mythos.
10:25: Name an instance where circumstances led you to change your opinion. Biden talks about his decision to start considering ideology in judicial nominees … when Palin was in middle school.
10:26: And she’s never changed her opinion on anything. Ever. Seriously? That ought to be debunked in the next 13 seconds.
10:27: How will you act to bring about bipartisanship? Biden: By not insulting people. Palin: Appoint a cabinet like my family. Well then.
10:28: Palin ran out of things to say and told us that she’ll cut taxes … then attacks the media in the sweeping ballad of the middle class that is her closing statement. Walt Whitman, eat your heart out.
10:30: “Freedom is one generation away from extinction,” she says, quoting Reagan yet again. Awfully dire, Sarah, yet accurate … just not how you think.
10:32: Biden to CEOs: Drop dead. He does a ballad of his own, then mildly presumptuously signs off.
So then. What to make of this? Palin has bounded back to competence in a debate that was nothing like the bloodbath I thought I might see. The format made it easy for her and Biden was cautious — as you should be with a healthy lead. MSNBC is just savaging her in a rather unfair way. Fox News … basically says she met those low expectations as Brit Hume uncomfortably hits on her. It looks like this debate was pretty much a Rorschach test, so make of it what you will. Good night and good luck.
Update: Here is an AP fact check on the shaky claims by both sides.
