call it what you will

Sarah Palin v. Joe Biden October 3, 2008

The VP debates last night weren’t quite what I expected.  I think both candidates held their ground fairly well.  Neither really stood out as being a clear winner or loser.  Neither of the candidates answered the questions asked very well.  Especially Palin who openly stated what she wanted to talk about and then did it.

Joe Biden

Joe Biden spent a lot of time talking about himself as opposed to Barack Obama and the ticket.  He seemed very reserved when at many points it looked like he wanted to either a) burst into laughter or b) walk across the stage and kick the governor in the shins yet he maintained his composure.  Overall though I feel Senator Biden came across as the more experienced vice-presidential candidate despite lacking anything of great substance or impact.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin far surpassed my expectations.  After her past interviews, I thought that she would likely stutter her way through this event as well.  I don’t think she did fantastic but, I set the bar low enough that she was alright.  I felt like she had a few things she knew about and that was all she wanted to talk about….i.e. energy…so she talked about energy for almost every question asked.  The things that I have to say drive me insane about Governor Palin: the overuse of the term ‘maverick,’ the constant mispronunciation of the word ‘nuclear’ (in a thirty second period she said ‘nucular’ six times), and last but certainly not least the smug grins and winking.  I don’t know who she was winking at but I don’t feel it was necessary.

So overall, the first and final VP debate was anticlimactic for me.  I don’t think that it will likely impact the polls in anyway.  Unless maybe, just maybe, other people hated the winking as much as I did.