The McCain campaign sequestered Governor Palin along with deft political handlers at Senator McCain's Ranch in Sedona, Arizona and put her through the paces of the anticipated debate. It appeared to me that she had memorized about a dozen mini-speeches and most likely trigger words that might be uttered by Gwen Iliff for each speech with a couple of default speeches just in case a question was asked that didn't have a set trigger. Sarah Palin reverted back to what she know's best when she couldn't directly answer a question. That is a valid debate tactic. She performed well.
If I could have given Joe Biden a word of advice pre-debate, I would have said, "Let Governor Palin lead the level of aggressiveness and then match it. Senator Biden could not afford to look overly aggressive and definitely could not utter even a shadow of sexism. It was his game to lose. He performed very well too and by all estimations, Joe Biden won the debate.
The past shows that VP debates rarely affect the presidential election since most people vote for the top of the ticket. Palin's high profile entry into the campaign made this debate particularly interesting.
Gwen Ifill, of the Public Broadcasting Service program called “Washington Week,” has authored a book entitled "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama" which will be published in January. The Republican party is crying "Foul" and claiming that she would favor Biden. The reality was that she was moderate to both candidates and was not as hard-hitting as she could have been.
Over-all, it was an interesting debate but not world-changing for anyone. Slate magazine summed it up by saying Palin won, Biden won, and Obama won last night, but McCain lost. McCain needed Sarah Palin to hit the ball out of the park if he was to get a bump from the debate. Governor Palin did hit the ball for a triple, but didn't make the home run. It was not the turning point for McCain's campaign pulling out of Michigan conceding a win for Barack Obama in that state. The polls were showing a ten-point lead for Obama. The McCain campaign shut down in Michigan to focus on making strategic moves elsewhere. I don't expect Sarah Palin to be doing anymore in-depth interviews for the duration of the campaign - unless it is with Fox News. Her public forum is closed for now except for scripted speeches in my opinion. John McCain is going "double-down" on key states trying to squelch the Obama firestorm that appears to be growing.
More on how McCain lost this debate in NY Times OpEd: Pitbull Palin Mauls McCain
Barack Obama has a new fervor after sitting back for a couple of weeks after the Republican Convention. Joe Biden had been leading the Obama/Biden campaign trail with fiery zeal and I was waiting for Obama to come out of his corner swinging as well. Obama has gotten his groove back. I expect the next three presidential debates to be very heated as John McCain feels the pressure of the polls leaning Obama's way. John McCain will be looking to make contact blows to cause pain for the Obama campaign and gain some leverage for his own.
Stay tuned for a very interesting times with the polls being as volatile as the stock market.
The CSPAN Full-version video of the debate:
Fox catches Palin right after debate:
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Buzz it up
