Contestant #8

There are two kinds of fools: those who can't change their opinions and those who won't.

--Josh Billings

A slightly shorter edition for today, but predictably, the big news is last night's debate.

The Debate

Palin's best line from the debate: "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as in, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children."

What? Oh.... um... hang on.... oh, yeah. I guess that wasn't Sarah Palin, that was Ms. South Carolina at the Miss Teen USA 2007. But you really thought it was Palin for a second, didn't you?

Here's video and the transcript of the debate from the NY Times, also in bite-sized pieces from Politico.com. Also.

So what I saw was in bits and pieces traveling from home, listening in the car, plugged into an old fashioned Sony Walkman with one earbud in discreetly hidden (I was at an event at the Dolby Theater) and finally in the screening booth at Dolby. But from what I witnessed, if your word in the Debate Drinking Game was "maverick," "change," or "nu-kular" you are now recovering from a wicked hangover. Also if you had the suffix "-in'"--as in "wishin'" and "hopin'" and "thinkin'" and prayin'" --you are STILL three sheets to the wind. You English majors, if you took a drink every time she incorrectly employed a gerund phrase or preposition, you are now, as to drinking, also to the toilet hanging. Also.

Some random notes from last night:

No, Palin didn't tremble and burst into tears, or flame out as she did her other appearances last week, but she certainly didn't shine either. As I noted to some of you already, Palin is really good at the "Contestant #8, Sarah Palin" Beauty Queen style. Bright, charming, lots of teeth. Her handlers gave her a tight script, and (I think) crossed their fingers and hoped that the answers would kinda match the questions. But, I thought it was interesting that as the debate wore on, the beauty queen smile and confidence seemed to ebb away. We lost the charming tics, the smile took on tension, her words came more quickly and less coherently, and there were long pauses before she launched into a response--you could almost see the little rat inside her brain running around in desperate circles. At one point, I thought maybe her little notecards had gotten shuffled, or maybe that my brain had skipped a neuron somehow, the way that old vinyl records would skip.

The 90-second/2 minute time limit helped Palin a lot, in my humble opinion. She had some good soundbites, and if you loved her before the debate, you probably thought she came over brilliantly. (Did she ACTUALLY wink at Joe Six-Pack?)

Plus, as HuffPo notes, for a woman who says "I didn't blink, you can't blink..." she blinked. A lot. Noticeably. Thing is, frequent blinking is a subtle non-verbal cue that most often is subliminally interpreted as shifty, it's the sort of thing that ays to people, "I'm uncomfortable and I'm lying."

At the Post, Tom Shales notes, "Commentators on many of the networks marveled at Palin's insistence on avoiding substantial comment on issues and on simply ignoring questions she couldn't answer convincingly. Palin basically stated early in the debate that this would be her strategy. She said she wasn't necessarily going to respond to the questions of the moderator or charges from Biden, but instead, 'I'm gonna talk right to the American people.' Since this was billed as a debate, not a speech, her remark came across as arrogant, and as an admission she would duck tough questions. " Yup. Yup.

Occasionally, Ifill would remind her that she hadn't actually um.. answered the freakin' question?: "As Vice President, there's nothing you've promised as a candidate that you would take off the table because of this financial issue?" Palin: "There is not, and how long have I been at this? Like five weeks?" Yes, dearie, we know.

Her only major gaffe of the night seem to have been Palin's reference to the commander in Afghanistan. As usual, I feel like, sure, it's not a guy whose name I know, but hey, you brought him up, so shouldn't you know his name? HuffPo notes: "The commanding general in Afghanistan didn't merely state that Surge tactics won't work! He also said that tribal involvement in the COIN strategy wouldn't work either! Absolutely right on infrastructure in Afghanistan though! Know what they really need in Afghanistan to enhance security? ROADS. Palin thinks our commander in Afghanistan is someone named "McClellan." It is, I believe, McKiernan. And Palin is DEAD WRONG. He absolutely said that tribal involvement in Afghanistan COIN strategy would not work."

Biden in my opinion pretty much eviscerated her on "Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?" Palin perkily answered, "Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president..." But Biden came back in a great, forceful reply with, "The idea he's part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous." And as Arianna Huffington pointed out, "The loudest ovation of the night -- at least in that ballroom (granted, not the most representative-of-America crowd) -- came when Biden said that Dick Cheney was the most dangerous VP in history." See, Sarah, people don't so much like Cheney...

At one point, when Biden said "just because I am a man" he didn't understand what it was like to wonder whether or not a child would "make it" in recovering from a life-threatening medical situation, he choked up and I fretted about how people would react to this moment. All around though, it was seen sympathetically --everyone seems to know the story of his wife and daughter-- and I thought was a great counterpoint to Palin's confusing and insincere reference to his Biden's wife ("Her reward is in heaven...")

In the end, I think Biden accomplished his goal, which is to focus in on McCain and how he's linked to Bush. "The issue is: How different is John McCain's policy going to be than George Bush's? I haven't heard anything yet," he said. "I haven't heard how his policy is going to be different on Iran than George Bush's. I haven't heard how his policy is going to be different with Israel than George Bush's. I haven't heard how his policy in Afghanistan is going to be different than George Bush's. I haven't heard how his policy in Pakistan is going to be different than George Bush's."

Generally, it's only been a few hours since the debate, but the consensus is a big win for Joe Biden. He was crisp, he was informed, and stayed on top of disarming all of her accusations and distortions, which wasn't easy. Her replies were often scattershot, and if you watched the debate as a whole, it kinda looked as if she had an earpiece in with someone whispering cues, but then halfway through she started tuning in the wrong station.

46% of the CBS Focus group gave the debate to Biden as a win, only 21% though Palin won, and 33% thought it was a tie. Over at CNN, Biden 51%-36%. James Fallows at the Atlantic tacks this little observation at the end of his quick analysis: "Of course Biden did a far better job -- he answered the questions rather than moving straight to talking points, he drew on a vastly broader range of factual references, he attacked his opponents in ways that were relevant to the subject under discussion. But this is not how the event was being watched or scored." My stars, how cynical we are, James.

Still, Adam McKay at HuffPo marvels that he's found a Dem candidate he COULD have a beer with. "He was masterful tonight. Biden is a stone cold pro in a world where most politicians just become cold or stone-like. But Joe Biden managed to communicate on every issue in a clear and laser focused way. The happiest person on the planet had to be Barack Obama's gastroenterologist. Because when Obama has to go under for his colonoscopy as president this Doctor will not have to rush, lest the VP drop the ball while in charge for those forty-five minutes. Obama's GI will even be able to take a second lap around the large intestine to make sure."

The NY Times analysis leads off with the "first do no harm" approach:"Gov. Sarah Palin made it through the vice-presidential debate on Thursday without doing any obvious damage to the Republican presidential ticket." But John F. Harris and Mike Allen at Politico were a bit more pointed in their views, "she got out alive, though there were white-knuckle moments along the way."

And another hilarious vlog intallment from "Sarah Palin," assessing her debate performance.

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In other late-breaking news... "Cash for Crap" is now officially headed to the White House for a signature. Now that EVERYBODY's pet project has been funded amply, it passed in the House this afternoon, "At 1:21 p.m., applause and cheers echoed through the House chamber as the number of "aye" votes crossed the threshold needed for passage with just seconds remaining in the official 15-minute voting period. The vote was 263 to 171."

Why, oh Why, oh why-oh. Why McCain SHOULD Leave Ohio

You want to know what I think is the big news? John McCain is pulling up campaign stakes in Michigan. Says Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic, "The move away from Michigan reflects the abandonment of any pretense that McCain can spend freely to expand the map for Republicans this year, and it's a sign that the campaign recognizes how the past two weeks have erased nearly all of McCain's gains since August. Instead, McCain's playing defense in states like Florida, Virginia and North Carolina, although his advisers do not consider the latter state as close as public polling suggests."

And the NY Times' Michael Cooper says," Ceding Michigan is a major blow to the McCain campaign, which had spent heavily on television commercials there and where Mr. McCain had campaigned repeatedly in the hopes that he could appeal to enough blue-collar voters, so-called Reagan Democrats and independent voters, to bring the state back into the Republican column in November."

Sarah Silverman exhorts the Jewish brethren to embark upon the Great Schlep to Florida. Yes, Sarah's got a potty mouth, but yes, it's soooo funny.

32 days to the election, folks! Reminder again that time is running out--for many states, you must register to vote well in advance of the elections. RockTheVote's list of voter registration deadlines. Here are some upcoming dates--forward this on to your friends in the appropriate states (swing states in bold):

• THIS Saturday Oct 4: Alaska, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington
• NEXT Monday, Oct 6: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.
• NEXT Tuesday, Oct 7: Illinois, New Mexico
• NEXT Wednesday, Oct 8: Missouri
  

If you're voting absentee, you may have to get your ballot in weeks before the Nov 4th Election date. Declare Yourself has links to each state's voter information page where you can find out how to get your absentee ballot. Ohio, your absentee ballot program is now open for business.