Vice Presidential Debate

Numerous papers look at Palin's record as a debater. The Wall Street Journal calls her a "formidable foe." A challenger in the 2006 Alaska gubernatorial election writes a firsthand account for the Christian Science Monitor, saying Palin is "a master of ... the fine art of the non-answer, the glittering generality." Okay, lets look at these two arguments first, The Wall Street Journal... "formidable foe." I didn't see her that way tonight. I grant that she is a good debater, but the 2nd statement above was much truer to her performance tonight. "Palin is a master of the fine art of the non-answer, the glittering generality." This statement is exactly what I saw in the debate tonight. As in her interviews with Charlie Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, she proved once again that she doesn't know very much history, nor does she know very much about politics, nor does she grasp current events on the level that someone running for the 2nd highest job in the land should. I noticed on many questions that she didn't know the answer, her lips would quiver, very nervously, then she would come up with a way in her head to answer the question and surprise, another glittering generality would emerge. Most of the time it was a repeat of something she had already said, with a little embellishment thrown in to throw off the viewer. I suppose one could say that this might make her a formidable foe as the commentator from the WSJ stated. I however, do not think she is, or that she showed that in the debate tonight. There was a moment where Senator Biden was talking about how his first wife and child had died in a car accident years ago and how he knew the feeling of how it is to not know if your child is going to survive as his two sons were both in critical condition. She didn't acknowledge his suffering in any way, but rather crassly went on with another point. I believe that she showed her true colors at that moment, just as Senator McCain did several times in his debate with Senator Obama last week. At least, she did look at Senator Biden and address him, the same, of course, cannot be said of Senator McCain.

Senator Biden was respectful and showed much knowledge of the facts as someone who has been in the United States Senate for 36 years should. He did not attack her at all, but rather attacked John McCain through her. I would have liked to see him take her on especially when she would not answer a question but spin it the way she wanted. He showed himself to be a man of integrity and honesty, truly someone that deserves to be vice president.

In my opinion it all comes down to this, do we want 4 more years of the same failed policies, with the same old way of doing things? Do we want a vice president that has no clue how to run a country, who might very well be president since John McCain is 72 years old and not in very good health? Do we want more of the same republican ideas of giving everything to the rich and hoping it will trickle down to the middle class? Do we want more war, more taxes on the middle class and less on the rich, less oversight of wall street, industry, and big corporations, more giveaways to the oil companies? Do we want to lose our health care that we have at our jobs due to McCain's plan of taxing the benefits? Do we want our taxes paid on those benefits to be given out to people as a $5000 dollar tax break so they can turn around and give that money to insurance companies and still not be able to afford adequate health care? My answer is NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!