The Palin-Biden debate

October 05, 2008

I watched the Palin-Biden vice presidential debate this Thursday. The big question, of course, was if Palin would break down and run off the stage crying or something. Well, she didn’t. She performed just fine. Not great, but fine. Biden was, of course, somewhat better but not as much as I imagined he would be. He didn’t devastate Palin. So, Biden won, but by a much smaller margin than I anticipated.

Some other bits and pieces…

When they shook hands in the beginning, Palin asked Biden “Can I call you Joe?” This was a nice touch, but she never did call him Joe. So why ask in the first place.

Initially, you couldn’t see Biden’s eyes on the camera, he was squinting really badly. That’s always a bad sign about people when you don’t see their open eyes. But he opened up later so you could see his eyes better.

Palin was sometimes sort of talking/hissing through her teeth and winking strangely. I don’t know how appropriate it is for a vice president, but it lightened up the atmosphere, exactly because it was unconventional, which is great from a simple TV watching perspective.

There were great entertaining moments where the candidates made fun of each other (mostly Biden of Palin, but also the other way) in the best sense possible – sarcastic, ironic, yet still respectful. The audience, who was silent, couldn’t help but burst out laughing, because some things said were really smart and funny. So in a sense, the atmosphere was somewhat lighter than in case of Obama-McCain where it was really a war zone.

Oh, and it was annoying when Biden talked about what Obama would do and ditto for Palin and McCain. Guys, if I want to hear about Obama and McCain, I’ll just watch themselves, OK? This debate was supposed to be about you, not the guys you will work for.