Seriously, no man can remove a jacket that quickly. That was like Waco Kid-level jacket removal. If a man can remove a jacket that quickly he is more than qualified to step in and serve in this nation's highest office, in TPMtv's humble estimation.
He was happy with the St. Louis debate, of course, and trying to be gracious: "I liked her [Sarah Palin]. When our families met, it was congenial, with none of the tension that's sometimes in the air." But he doesn't think the event was terribly relevant. "The real issue is John and Barack."
About that catch in his throat: in the moment, he "could picture Beau in the bed" after the 1972 car accident that killed Biden's first wife, Neilia, and their baby girl and critically injured his young sons. Now Beau, the 39-year-old attorney general of Delaware, was off to war, a judge advocate general traveling to obscure regions of Iraq, where the road isn't exactly the safest place to be. The memory of being a single parent mixed with worries about Beau to create "a lot of bundled emotions. It surprised me. I was hoping nobody noticed." Only 70 million or so did.
Biden compares running for vice president to being a "cicada," in which the only time you surface publicly (if you're not Sarah Palin) is when chosen, at the debate and if you win.
At a secret meeting in mid-August at the Graves 601 Hotel in St. Paul, Minn., that lasted two to three hours, Obama told him it wouldn't work unless Biden viewed the vice presidency as "the capstone" of his career, not a step down. "Not the tombstone?" Biden joked.The man continues to grow on me. Can you think of any good qualities for the Vice Presidency which Biden lacks?
"Will this job be too small for you?" Obama asked, with a deft appreciation of the art of flattery.
"I said no, as long as I would really be a confidant. I told him, 'The good news is, I'm 65 and you're not going to have to worry about my positioning myself to be president. The bad news is, I want to be part of the deal'."
Biden, who had stayed neutral in the Democratic primaries after dropping out in January, told Obama that he was "ready to be second fiddle" and sought no specific portfolio—but only if he got a guaranteed hourlong, one-on-one session with the president every week (like Al Gore's lunches with Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush's with Ronald Reagan) and a presence at all important meetings. Obama said yes, that he wanted him for his judgment and for his help in enacting a big legislative agenda. And so the job was defined: "My role will be to say, 'Boss, here's the way I'd go about it'."
Biden says Obama reminds him of Bill Clinton in his "confidence, cognitive ability, judgment" and intellectual security—that he can listen and absorb advice without having to prove he's the smartest person in the room, a critical leadership skill."
I was dead wrong about that; no comedy whatsoever -- unless you count chirpy ramblings, but I was not amused.BTW: A helluva week for Sarah Palin to debate, huh?Omigosh! Not just Sarah, but Biden! This debate and its aftermath will be comedy gold.
Actual quote.I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.
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.Sullivan reader:
The closing statements are about to wrap. I have been watching your comments and have reached the same conclusion. Palin caught Biden off guard by coming off as a pretty competent debater (facts aside). Once Biden realized that he was facing a real opponent and became less afraid to fight back, he cleaned her clock. They sent Biden in with a muzzle. Thank goodness he was smart enough to know when to take it off.Another such reader:
Two things immediately jump out as memorable. Biden ruled on the VP question, absolutely ruled, and she was clueless. And his breakdown in talking about his son almost dying was even more poignant because of her immediate, insensitive, complete disregard for what had been a genuine moment.Ben Smith:
My quick take is that Palin passed a pass-fail test, though she flagged as the debate went on. Though she was chosen for her emotion connection, she was the drier of the two candidates. But if the central worry was that she'd be a drag on the ticket, she likely returned herself to the same status as Biden and every other running mate in memory: Not, ultimately, a major factor at the polls.Crowley:
I think Palin is giving a cosmetically strong performance so far, but on the substance it's a horrorshow.Josh Marshall:
Meanwhile, note her extremely heavy reliance on notes--up to three or more glances per answer. At moments during her Afghanistan exchange she seemed to be reading directly from them.
We were just talking about why Palin did better tonight than she did in her interviews. I think it's actually very simple. No follow ups. It's not a criticism of Gwen Ifill. It wasn't the format she was supposed to work with. But if you look at Palin's interview trainwrecks things always got bad on the follow up -- when the interviewer (Gibson or Couric) pressed her on the nebulous answer for some specifics, which she couldn't provide. That's the difference.Ramesh Ponnuru:
The big loser tonight was Tina Fey.Philip Primeau:
Let's be honest: Palin only held her ground tonight because Biden let her do so. He was afraid a hard charge might backfire, so he kept his engines at 50%, max. Even so, on every substantive issue he champed her, and rhetorically there was no comparison. They should've invoked the mercy rule half-way through.Ross Douthat:
He didn't need to wipe the floor with her in order to win, and he wisely didn't try; he just needed to sound more authoritative, nuanced, and experienced than her, to hammer away at John McCain, and to generally play defense for a ticket that's on its way to victory at the moment. And I think he succeeded. The Democrats have a lot of built-in advantages in this election cycle, and judging by the public's reaction to the first debate, the key to victory for Obama-Biden is to do no harm - don't squander your advantages, don't freak out when the Republicans score their points on the surge and offshore drilling, and just be sure to always nudge the conversation back to the economy, to middle-class tax cuts versus tax cuts for the rich, to health care, and to George W. Bush's record. So while Sarah Palin did an awful lot for Sarah Palin tonight, there was only so much she could do for her running mate - given her own limits, but especially given the state of the country, and the gulf between the issues the McCain campaign wants to fight on and the issues voters care about. She's saved herself from Quayle-dom, but Obama-Biden is one debate closer to victory.Greg Sargent:
a better way to decide who "won" tonight is this: Which Veep candidate most forcefully made the case against the opposing presidential candidate?Nate Silver:
By that standard, the winner by that measure was unquestionably Joe Biden. He made a far stronger case against John McCain than Sarah Palin did against Barack Obama. It wasn't even close.
Palin's largest problem, to my eyes, is that she was tangibly nervous for most of the debate, rushing through talking points and canned jokes alike with unsually little inflection. I doubt that this will impact her favorables much -- in fact, it seems likely that her favroables will improve.M.J. Rosenberg
The McCain campaign did not opt, in the end, for Sarah Barracuda. They wanted
Palin scripted, and in some cases she seemed to have her lines literally memorized. This was the more risk-averse choice, but provided for few genuine moments of spontaneity.
...It also allowed Joe Biden to get a lot of free shots in at John McCain, several of which were quite effective.
...I suspect that the Sarah Palin chapter of the campaign is largely over. She may draw large crowds in her next couple of public appearances; it's also not out of the question that the media will sour on her performance in the forthcoming days, once it's been removed somewhat from her safety net of low expectations. But after that, she may largely fade into the background, and if she is making news, it may not be for reasons the McCain campaign likes.
At the end of the day, this is another missed opportunity for the McCain campaign, a fact which is only betrayed by conservative commentators' hyperbolic attempts to spin to the contrary But McCain may well have been willing to take that settlement ahead of time, figuring they had more to lose tonight than to gain.
I always liked Joe Biden but, I'll admit it, I worried about how he would do in the debate with Palin.angelslay:
It was a difficult situation. It was imperative that he give the Republicans no openings at all to portray him as condescending, arrogant, sexist or a bloviator.
He gave them none.
In a way, Obama's task is easier. McCain is simply not likable. Palin is. And she's a woman. And she's a mom. And she is "one of the people" while Joe has been a senator since he was 30.
It would have been easy for Biden to blow it. He didn't. After two suck-up Vice-Presidential nominees in a row, we, at long last, had a real fighting Democrat. What a change after '00 and '04.
Joe Biden made me proud. Of him and of Barack Obama (not that I wasn't proud already).
I have to give credit to Palin and her advisers of being able to come up with a way to completely dodge questions and avoid discussing topics she has no idea about. Just use "Let's get back to (previous topic)" and just avoid the question altogether. Never did I believe she understood what she was even talking about. Don't understand a topic, insert "John McCain is a maverick that went against his own party," "Obama wants to increase taxes," or wink at the camera to distract the viewers from what is actually being said. Here we have candidate for the second highest position in the country, coming off as folksy and talking to us like we are a child. Can she be any less presidential? We don't need someone who could ad-lib their way through a debate and call it a success. This country deserves better than this.
What made the Couric interviews so devastating was Couric's tendency (which is actually rare among reporters) to ask follow up questions when she got a non-responsive answer. When Palin would filibuster, Couric would repeat the question or press her for specifics. That's what elicited her most embarrassing responses. But the format of the debate won't allow for those kind of follow up questions.I think that's about right. I also think Couric's "gentle mauling" of Palin may go down in history as the highlight of her career.
Palin can be as non-responsive as she pleases. Moreover, on at least half the questions, Biden will have to answer first, which will give Palin time to think about her answer and allow her to build off whatever Biden says. And finally, the questions aren't likely to be out of left field. There's a lot of ground to cover and not much time to do it, so it's very likely that all of the questions she'll be asked will have been anticipated by her coaches and she'll have set answers ready.
Politico previews Biden’s likely strategy when he faces Palin at the debate:
I now think the veep debate is going to matter squat given the economic climate we find ourselves in and what Palin, McCain, and Republicans have done to discredit themselves elsewhere.If Sarah Palin goofs, flounders, stumbles or blunders during her debate against Joe Biden on Thursday night, Biden is going to let it slide.
“If she makes a gaffe, he underplays it,” one of the people prepping Biden for his vice presidential debate told me. “At most, he says, ‘I am not sure what Gov. Palin meant there.’”
...
“Joe Biden’s No. 1 job during the vice presidential debate is to keep the focus on the top of the ticket,” the Biden debate prepper told me. “He is going to keep the focus on John McCain.”
The VP debate is worrisome as expectations are so low for Palin and there is an assumption after the Couric interview that Biden will wipe the floor with her. Anything other than Biden being really nice while annihilating her will be seen as a Palin "win" or holding the line.DTM:
Watching Biden tonight it dawned on me that this is what we are going to see in the VP debate: Biden hammering McCain. But in that instance, Palin is going to have no choice but to do something in response. Should be interesting.I think DTM is right, that's exactly what Biden should do. He should be courteous to Palin but hammer home all the problems with McCain.
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