The Veep Debate

Conventional wisdom will call this clash between Senator Biden and Governor Palin a tie, but only because Palin let several rebuttal opportunities slip by and used the adjective "maverick" more than she should have, while Biden got a few zingers in, chiefly about tax breaks for oil companies.

(The sure sign that "maverick" was overused? Even Biden caught on enough to grouse that McCain was "not a maverick on the things that mattered." He wouldn't have had that opening had we gotten less "maverick" and more "barracuda.")

In spite of her obvious personal warmth and telegenic advantage over the senator from Delaware, I suspect that my "tie" impression will morph into a "win for Palin" impression on review of the debate transcript away from the TV.

That might seem counterintuitive, unless you share my hunch that Palin's answers were, for the most part, more substantive than Biden's. She did well to return several times to the theme of executive experience and was predictably solid on energy policy. Apart from that, she was effective in underscoring her own reform credentials, and calling attention to Biden's opportunistic "intellectual growth."

On the one "social issues" question about same-sex couples, Palin was a deft, honest combination of velvet and steel, and her answer there left Senator Biden with nothing other than his own "I have a bracelet, too" moment.

On Iraq and Afghanistan, Palin offered only McCainiac boilerplate, but her closing statement was strong.

Biden, by contrast, spent almost as much time railing against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as against Senator McCain (and was rightly mocked for his backward focus).

As in last week's debate between presidential candidates, the Democrat could think of nothing that he and his running mate would cut from their budget plans in light of the economic challenges we all face. Biden said only that he and Obama would "slow the [planned increase in] foreign aid." If that's the best they can think of in terms of spending cuts, then we've got trouble, right here in River City.

Palin pointed out that she personally hasn't proposed expensive new initiatives that needed cutting, but then got a little too cute in chalking that up to having been a national candidate for only five weeks. Fortunately, her small-government instincts came through loud and clear at several other moments. Anyone paying attention would have to admit that she's the most libertarian candidate on either ticket-- and in this election, I think that's a good thing.

I love that Palin summarized her prospective portfolio as a Vice President in three key points: energy, reform, and special needs children.

Biden summarized his portfolio by saying that he declined to have one, then saying he would be there to advise Barack. Hearing that, I paraphrased it sarcastically in my head as "just what we need-- a consigliere." It was, I thought, a tacit admission of Obama's inexperience, even though Biden probably did not mean for it to sound like that. When Biden capped that with a rant against Dick Cheney as a fan of the "unitary executive" theory and "the most dangerous vice president ever," I gave that exchange to Palin wholeheartedly.

My reflex was seconded by lawyers who know more about the Constitution than Biden does, and say that his paraphrase of Veep duties was and is wrong (sample from better-informed critics of the Delaware Senator: "the Vice President does have a legislative role, and the VP doesn't just preside over the Senate in case of a tie. The VP only votes in case of a tie, but voting isn't the same as presiding. Good grief.")

Oh, and Sarah Palin is so much more fun than any other candidate on either ticket. That ought to count for something. Seriously-- it's because she doesn't seem to take any of this too seriously that I do take her seriously, and you should, too. She mentioned joy. As my friend Kurt says, the most probable explanation for that is vibrant Christian faith. I think he's right.

Biden made one "bridge to nowhere" crack, but it wasn't as devastating as he'd hoped it would be, and the one "gotcha" moment I heard could have hurt him, but went unexploited.

If you want reaction from other people, you can find some of it here, and big thanks to Sister Toldjah for the link to that. She also had the video link and the transcript link up faster than anyone else.