A few of the more interesting immediate reaction posts from around the political blogosphere.
Averaging expectations, style and points, it was a wash. Partisans have reason to be satisfied; I honestly have no idea how undecided voters will react (although CBS’s panel of them gave Biden an edge.)
But the topline here is that, when it comes to worrying about Palin, the McCain campaign can now exhale … (one GOPer e-mailed: “We live to fight another day.”) ….and though, on paper, Palin said some weird things in weird ways (expanding the power of the vice presidency??) , she did nothing negatively indelibly memorable, and, at times, was positively impressive. She’ll rev up partisan enthusiasm, and that’s an accomplishment in and of itself. She was most effective when she argued against Barack Obama; mildly effective when she argued for John McCain’s policies, and not terribly effective when it came to justifying why she was qualified to be vice presidentl of the United States.
(…)
To practiced ears, Palin memorized and repeated talking points and Biden responded to the questions and argued. Palin dodged questions and seemed vague; but then again, for those whose only impression of Palin has been the one Tina Fay performed on Saturday Night Live, she cleared the bar. Biden seemed a little unsure how tough to be at the beginning of the debate; by the beginning of the final third, he hit his stride. As the debate wound on, Palin seemed less agile when it came to constructing sentences and answers. Lots of key phrases, weird placement of conjunctions, so the gist of what she was saying was there, but it wasn’t terribly clear.
By ordinary standards, Joe Biden “won” the debate. He was more articulate, seemed more conversant with the facts, made more of an effort to answer the questions. But Sarah Palin’s performance was so weird that I don’t know how to judge it. She just wasn’t playing the same game as her opponent.
The Alaskan dived deep into the Avatar Of The Everyday American role, not just with cloying, self-conscious allusions to “Joe Six-Pack” and “hockey moms” and soccer sidelines and so on, but by stammering through her answers like she’d won an Anyone Can Debate Joe Biden contest. Maybe there’s a method to this madness. Maybe she was authentic enough to impress a lot of viewers as Someone Like Me, evasive and incoherent enough to lure Democrats into attacks that might be seen as mocking People Like You.
Or maybe she just came off as an ill-informed panderer. Who knows?
Yea, I can’t figure it out either.
The campaign’s trajectory remains unaltered. Palin’s inability to answer real questions, her capacity to avoid follow-ups, her slightly manic quality, and her inability to relate to working class voters came across. Biden did not talk too much; he made no sexist gaffes; he didn’t appear to be overweening; he seemed like a nice guy. I think she managed to avoid a tailspin; he reassured. It will stem the GOP collapse a little. But it won’t change the race.
On that final point, I think Sullivan is 100% correct. Tonight will do nothing to stem to trend toward Obama that is evident in the polls.
Joe Biden was about average tonight, hitting the talking points in a way that was far from seamless while Sarah Palin was worse than most, making some attempts like “Say it ain’t so, Joe” at delivering canned lines that made me cringe. She was by no means awful but she struck me as someone obviously looking for her mark. She struck me as rather corny, if not goofy, at times whereas Biden struck me as much more bland than usual. At the same time, though, she didn’t come across as a nitwit.
Watching the debate on CNN, which had dials of undecided voters divided by gender, it appears that “ordinary voters” saw it differently. My wife noted that men generally seemed not to like Biden much and Palin was mostly above the line with both men and women.
The most poignant moment of the evening was Biden’s talking about the tragic accident which took his wife and daughter and the struggle of being a single dad. Palin missed an opportunity to share a human moment after that, immediately going into chipper line recitation mode.
Granted, but Palin was in chipper line recitation mode all night.
So, my final thoughts are this:
1) Palin survives. She is no longer JUST a national punchline. For Democrats she still is. But for Republicans she is not an automatic cringe-inducer. As such, she can go back to hosting rallies and be of help to the ticket.
2) Biden improves a ton. He solidifies Democratic support for the Obama ticket and, by showing discipline and restraint (especially after the first half hour), he was an asset. He strengthened Obama as a whole.
3) The trajectory doesn’t change. We will go back to the economy again tomorrow. Palin didn’t collapse the McCain ticket. But she didn’t turn things around either.
I think a visitor from Mars watching this debate would have been struck by the fact that Sarah Palin could barely get a paragraph out without mangling what she was trying to say. Conversely, a veteran of the Katie Couric Interviews would be struck by the fact that Palin’s errors weren’t so egregious that you were left totally baffled as to what she was trying to say. But I don’t actually think this stuff is all about expectations. If Palin had some kind of substantial record on or background in national issues, I don’t think anyone would find this performance especially terrifying. But if you already had some serious doubts about her, I think she scarcely put those doubts away.
Which means that, in the end, this is a win for Obama/Biden.
