“I think she’s very good,” Clinton said, praising Palin on Ryan Seacrest’s Los Angeles-based radio show Friday morning. “It’s amazing: she’s been thrust into the national spotlight with very little preparation and I think that, all things considered, you saw a very composed and effective debater last night.”
Praise for Palin’s debate performance aside, Clinton reiterated her support for her former Democratic rivals during the morning radio interview and said “the real issue is who is better for America.”
While I was watching the debate, I felt that Sarah did a better job at relating to the average, middle-class American that Joe Biden. Yes, Joe appeared sincere and humble, but Sarah’s plain-spoken method really struck a chord with me. Her sincerity seemed to read well when she was looking directly at the camera — which she did more often that Biden. Going into the debate, I was nervous that Biden was going to tear her apart. I guess the credit for creating those fears go directly to the GOP and the MSM.
Yes, she mixed up the name of Afghanistan’s Commander’s name wrong, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the hugest of deals. That gaffe aside, the NYT agrees that she did a great job:
“Oh, man, it’s so obvious I’m a Washington outsider, and someone just not used to the way you guys operate,” she said after her opponent explained, somewhat awkwardly, why he had voted in favor of the Iraq war.
And Ms. Palin was the one who set the tone, making Mr. Biden sound stuffy before he had a chance to make her look unsteady. She bounded onto the stage, shook hands with her opponent and said brightly, “Hey, can I call you Joe?”
He said yes, then addressed her as “Governor Palin.”
Obama supporters went in giddy and came out deflated. The most important thing that I learned from the debate is that when Sarah speaks for an extended period of time, she sounds a lot like the mother in Bobby’s World:
Moreover, thanks to the media reaction to Palin on the basis of her interviews with Katie Couric and Charles Gibson, expectations had been set rather low. Biden and the Democrats talked about her experience at debates as a way of raising that bar, but one has to doubt whether Biden really believed she could play on his level. He seemed flustered at times — at one point tugging on his collar as she attacked him, to the delight of the Trocadero’s crowd. Even without those low expectations, she beat Biden — and the nation got a look at the real Sarah Palin.
Can Gwen Ifill really maintain her impartiality even though she wrote a book called “The Breakthrough” praising Barack Obama for his holy awesomeness? Can Joe Biden refrain from insulting a minority group? Let’s hope not because everytime Sarah Palin winks, she will be judged. Barring any foot-in-mouth moments from Biden, I feel like tonight’s narrative will be: Biden wins.
Unless, of course, the GOP psyched us all out by pretending that Palin can’t place one foot in front of the other without tripping over herself. Mission accomplished! After watching Palin’s response to Couric’s supreme court decision question, either the GOP is masterfully playing into the image or pretending they created the image. Either way, we’ll find out tonight. What fills me with some confidence is this interview where she discusses a supreme court decision:
Good. I was praying that the Loose Cannon would emerge:
“Not really, she didn’t,” Clinton said in response to a question from host Barbara Walters about whether Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. wanted to join her one-time opponent on the Democratic ticket.
On McCain:
“The American people, for good and sufficient reasons, admire him,” Clinton said of McCain. “He’s given something in life the rest of us can’t match.”
When asked about Palin attracting Hillary voters, Bill says [video]:
We vote for some people because we identify with them on race or gender… Hillary never begrudged, for example, any African-Americans supporting Barack Obama and said, ‘Look I want my kids to know that they can grow up to be president and be whatever they wanted to be,’ So, you can’t tell someone else that the ground on which they make voting decision is irrational.”
The McCain camp launched an attack not too long ago claiming that Biden’s son used to lobby on behalf of MBNA. Biden’s spokesman says that never happened. Yeah, right:
The McCain campaign points out that Hunter Biden served as a vice president at the credit card giant MBNA at one time and later as a “consultant” to it.
Biden’s camp has always denied that the senator’s son was hired to lobby, though it’s hard to imagine that the bank wasn’t aware of their employee’s connection to the senator.
I know my I.Q. isn’t as high as Biden’s, but I’m having a hard time accepting the idea that Biden’s son never ever informally lobbied his dad on behalf of his former employer – an employer that just happens to have their headquarters in Delaware.
A reader and assiduous radio listener in Colorado sends over word of Obama’s latest, unannounced radio ad buy.
This one addresses Obama’s support of stem cell research, and says McCain has stood in the way of progress on stem cell research.
In fact, McCain has generally been a supporter of stem cell research, though it’s a complicated issue, and hard to address without the details of the ad, which I don’t have.
While Ben doesn’t have the actual radio ad, here’s a quick profile on the subject provided to you by Pew:
McCain opposes embryonic stem cell research that uses cloned human embryos. In 2006 he supported a trio of U.S. Senate bills designed to increase federal funding for adult stem cell research, ban the creation of embryos for research and offer federal support for research using embryos slated for destruction by fertility clinics.In 2007, in what he described as “a very agonizing and tough decision,” he voted to allow research using human embryos left over from fertility treatments.
WASHINGTON – The FBI searched the residence of the son of a Democratic state lawmaker in Tennessee over the weekend looking for evidence linking the young man to the hacking of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s personal e-mail account, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Monday.
David Kernell, 20, has not returned repeated phone calls or e-mails from the AP since last week. He is the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of Tennessee’s House Government Operations Committee. The father declined last week to discuss the possibility his son might be involved in the case.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this kid wasn’t just acting out of sheer curiosity.
flaggot 