Car Crash Liveblog
Which one hits the rail first? Flag drops on debate liveblogging:
Ifill starts ‘em, explaining that she’s approved her own questions. No campaign input. Gosh, that’s a relief.
Boring, I mean, Biden kicks off. I’m not only having trouble hearing him, I’m having trouble staying awake. Urgent to Biden handlers: Hold up the paddle that says “DON’T MUMBLE!”
Palin: Too bad they didn’t listen to reformer McCain. “He put politics aside, country first.” Soundbite No. 1.
Anyone else notice that Biden looks like he’s made of yellow, somewhat warm, droopy and dust-encrusted wax? Memo to Biden camp … pump some red dye No 3 into that formalehyde. Biden says McCain changes his tune when the news changes. Urgent to Biden handlers. Hold up the paddle that says, “SOUNDING WHINY.” Wave that driver into the pit, quick.
Palin: “Americans are craving something new and different.” Vote Maverick and Sarahcuda. Oh yeah, we’re going after greed and corruption … for you, Joe Six-Pack. “Never again will we be taken advantage of … personal responsibility … It’s not the American people’s fault.”
Biden: “John McCain is a good man.” More whiny mumbling. Is this guy on anti-histimines?
Plain and Biden exchange smiles. Then Sarahcuda starts ticking off all the Biden, Obama tax votes. “We do need tax relief. Barack Obama even supported tax increases for people making $42,000 a year.”
Biden: Did not. By your standard, McCain voted for taxes a bunch of times. Its a bogus standard. (OK, McCain didn’t vote to raise taxes. Thanks, Joe).
Palin: “I’m going to talk straight to the American people and tell them my record.”
Biden: Oh yeah? Well, I’ve got a bunch of percentages I’d like to reel off.
Palin: I’ll call your percentages and raise you millions of small businesses that need to grow and thrive and prosper. Obama plan, “a backwards way to grow our economy.” I think I’m picking up a little “Hello, as if…” Nice eye roll, Sarah.
Biden: “I don’t know where to start.” No kidding. OK, socialism equals fairness. (Hey, ever notice how much Biden looks and sounds like a really old, tired, yellowish version of that guy from the Van Wilder college party flicks? The plug job has grown in nicely, by the way)
Palin: McCain doesn’t say one thing to one group and turn around and say another thing to another group. (Uh oh, this could get ugly). Obama energy vote shafted the little guy … forced Palin to beat up on oil execs for the little Alaskan guy. That’s OK, Palin loves getting up in the morning and beating up oil execs. That’s a fun day.
Biden: Hang on, I’ve got some more facts and figures here somewhere.
Palin: We have John McCain to thank for bringing people to the table. Good thing we’ve got a reformer like that.
Biden: It gets complicated. Let me see if I can muddle it some more. Let me make it simple, if you bought more house than you can afford, I’ve got someone else’s chicken I’d like to put in your pot.
Palin: Drill, drill, drill! Here, not someplace foreign places. Good American jobs at good American wages.
Ifill: I’ve got a gotcha for you. I didn’t get this from the Obama camp, I came up with it on my own, honest. Climate change, which as we know is painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel … what’s with you, you backward hick … Didn’t you see Al Gore’s movie?
Palin: Let’s clean the place up and stop burning dirty foreign oil.
Biden: Al Gore is like a god to me. He brought the tablets down from the mountain and has been pounding on that golden calf like a mofo! McCain-Palin just say “Drill drill drill!”
Palin: “Drill baby drill!” Obama-Biden say “Drill, no drill, drill, no drill, drill, no drill.” To nuke or not to nuke? That seems to be Obama ’s question.
Ifill: Sen. Biden, is Sarah Palin a gay-basher?
Biden: Of course.
Palin: People have a right to mind their own business.
Ifill: How about you, Sen. Biden?
Biden: Well, Obama and I are hypocrites. We support gay rights by denying that we do. Read my lips. Sarah Palin is a gay basher.
Palin: My boy’s going to Iraq and Oabam voted not to buy him bullets. Thank, Joe Biden, for calling him out on that. Hey, good thing that surge worked. You guys know about that, right?
Biden: Obama is such a visionary he had a post-surge plan even when he was insisting the surge would never work. We will surrender. John McCain keeps insisting on winning.
Palin: You know about that surge, right? It worked. Hey, why did you think Barack Obama isn’t ready to be commander-in-chief?
Biden: OK, let’s see if this one works. John McCain, who wants the war to go on forever, voted to cut off funding. OK, so he voted against the dumb surrender timeline. But that’s not my point. John McCain has been wrong about everything, except maybe that winning thing.
Biden: Pakistan can destroy Israel! Iran’s bad, too. Whatever. Iraq? Hooey. Let’s kcik off a nation-building in backward tribal areas of Pakistan! By the way, invading there was our idea.
Palin, charmingly: Nucular Ahmadinejad is a dangerous wackjob. By the way, me and Kissinger … like that.
Biden: Why do they hate us? Europeans want more talk.
Palin: Memo to mullahs … no more holocausts. Israel, McCain-Biden … like that.
Biden: I have a bracelet, too!
(Technical difficulties … sorry, missed some. If you consider that missing some)
Biden, re Iraq, Darfur: Waht Kerry said about Iraq. Screw the boots. Darfur’s a heck of a place for a flyover! Kosovo easy!
Palin: Now, were you against it before you were for it before you were against it? McCain knows how to win a war.
Ifill: If the unspeakable happens … you know, if the 72-year-old geezer has a massive heart attack or cancer, then what?
Biden: In case of Obamergency, break glass, pull hairplugs.
Palin: Hey, we’re mavericks. I’m no yes-woman McCain clone. But you can rely on me to keep cutting taxes.
Biden: I used to live in Scranton, back in the day. Hey, did you know I’m the poorest guy in the most exclusive club in America?
Palin, charmingly: A shout-out to my favorite third-graders! Extra-credit for watching! (OK, this debate’s pretty much over now).
Biden, droning: She may have talked to a principal, but I talked to Barack and he was in school as recently as the 1970s …
Ifill to Palin: When did you stop beating Dick Cheney’s wife?
Palin: I have more experience actually running stuff than any of these people.
Biden: Cheney McHitlerburton Gitmo Iraq Chimpy Puppet Constitution stomp!
Palin: Tolerance, freedom, independence are us!
Biden: I have a gaffe problem. I haven’t changed since I plagiarized Neil Kinnock. I may be rich, but I’ve had tragedy. (Choke moment.)
Palin: McCain is the leader we need in tumultuous times.
Biden: McCain, no maverick. Forget everything you’ve ver heard about McCain being a maverick. No way. Hey, seen this neato bridge? Going cheap.
Biden: Back when I was a young lawyer working for a judge … I did stuff I changed my mind about.
Palin: Back when I was actually running things in small-town America … I did what I thought was right.
Biden: I don’t question anyone’s motives … I just think they’re nuts sometimes. That’s bi=-partisanship.
Palin: At the end of the day, we’ll all be OK. Kumbayah, sure. But your policies need to make sense. Ixnay on axes-tay.
Palin: This has been great .. let’s do this again sometime … without that dirtbag MSM for a change. It’s been great. BTW, proud to be an American. Ronald Reagan, freedom, fight for our children. Only one guy in the race who’s ever done that …
Biden: Drone, drone, drone … hey, you know I was born in a log cabin, right? America’s ready, I’m ready, and Brack Obama is ready to be prez …
Crit: Vote America.
Quick take: Palin on style, general lifelikeness, failure to drone, ability to speak in simple declarative sentences. Shout out to her peeps was big. Biden might have had it on substance, though with the constant droning about percentages, intermingled with mumbling about amendments and double-reverse voting intricacies, it’s impossible to tell. Game effort to note that once upon a time, he was a real person. He gets points for the choke-up moment, however.
Considered take: Palin, darting around in a cute little coupe, handles all the foreign policy curves nicely and even negotiates that gay marriage oil spill, gets the checkered flag. Approximately one zillion American viewers who have been told for the past two weeks she’s a tongue-tied ignoramous are now wondering why they ever paid any attention to that MSM that Palin and most other Americans love to hate. Biden’s Oldsmobile spun out at the starting line, never quite got that engine chugging on all eight cylinders, took his turns a little wide but managed to avoid the rail. No crash, but then again, turns out she didn’t need him to.
Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s Andrew Sullivan (Instapundit reads him so we don’t have to) …
“Biden is just dreadful. He speaks in Washingtonese. She just issues the soundbites and wrinkles her eyes and tells stories. And that works. The speed and chirpiness she delivers overwhelms one’s ability to even quite absorb what she’s saying. And it has put Biden off-stride. It’s Biden who seems over-crammed.”
You don’t think he’s getting ready to switch sides again? I’m almost tempted to go see how he liked Palin’s rainbow tolerance vs. Biden’s forced anti-gay marriage admission.
Liveblogging links:
Gateway Pundit is on scene with art. Midwest Jim is darting in and out of the hall.
Tigerhawk transAtlantic groggy liveblogging
Malkin’s liveblog, and a verdict, “SARAH ROCKS!”
Hotair with debate chatter and McCain camp: Our girl did it!
OK, enough righty gunning it. Here’s some lefty corrective steering:
TalkLeft with Biden’s Best Line, “McCain’s No Maverick.” Hang on, how about Iraq Cheney Bush Bad?
Firedoglake: Biden, remarkably humanoid, Palin … girly.
Pre-debate comment, cruelty, jitters;
Michelle Malkin’s Veep Debate Bingo, Print and Play.
Iowahawk: Ifill Ethics Commission Clears Ifill.
On the left, some nervousness at Crooks and Liars:
It’s a big mistake to discount Palin tonight. Yeah, she’s appeared as an ill-prepared, out of her league wannabe in the Couric interview, but the format of tonight’s debate definitely favors her strong points–90 second responses, sitting down, etc. and the McCain campaign has been in overdrive to manage expectations no matter her performance
The word from the DNC is that they have prepped her to go nasty. That’s a warning for Biden, who–if he falls in the trap–could damage himself by appearing to be patronizing or too aggressive towards her.
Oops, bad idea.
Here’s a fat and happy Newshog with a confident pre-debate prediction:
In a word: Anti-climatic.
I honestly don’t know how the expectations game is going to work for Palin. On the one hand, her interview segments with Couric have driven expectations of her down so far that clearing them should be as difficult as a high jump over a garter snake. But on the other hand, there have been a spate of stories over the last few days pumping up her abilities as a debater. I would assume the former will outweigh the latter on the expectations game, but as another commentator noted recently, there is still a minimum bar people expect a VP candidate to meet, and it is as yet unknown if Palin can approach that bar with just one half-decent debate performance.
It probably does say something that I can’t find anybody expecting her to be more than mildly competent tonight.
Wrong again.
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:40 pm Comments (7) on Thursday, October 2, 2008
7 Responses to “Car Crash Liveblog”
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October 2nd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden [...]
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:13 pm
[...] posting on this: Webloggin, Mcnorman’s Weblog, Jules Crittenden, Stop The ACLU Published [...]
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Question:
Post debate, who needs to watch the mirror for the Obama Truth Squads?
I’m guessing Biden wants to jump across the river as quick as he can.
There is what’s left of a truckstop over there, he might be able to hide there.
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 am
[...] Jules Crittenden: Palin on style, general lifelikeness, failure to drone, ability to speak in simple declarative sentences. Shout out to her peeps was big. Biden might have had it on substance, though with the constant droning about percentages, intermingled with mumbling about amendments and double-reverse voting intricacies, it’s impossible to tell. Game effort to note that once upon a time, he was a real person. He gets points for the choke-up moment, however. [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 am
I knew she could do it.
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:42 am
[...] Jules Crittenden » Car Crash Liveblog [...]
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Huh. After this performance, you have to wonder, did she not look as good in the Couric interview because they were deliberately trying to make her look bad? Naw, a respectable news organization like CBS would never do that!