Regarding the debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, the reviews couldn’t be more mixed… or more prejudiced.
A poll by CNN and Opinion Research found 51 per cent thought Mr Biden had performed best, with Mrs Palin taking 36 per cent of respondents.
A survey of uncommitted voters for CBS found the split even more pronounced, with Mr Biden on 46, Mrs Palin on 21 and a relatively high proportion stating that neither had impressed or that they could not decide.
When the uncommitted voters were pressed, 18 per cent said they would vote for Barack Obama and Mr Biden following the debate, with only 10 per cent ready to line up for John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Another instant poll done by Fox News, which did not allow for such fence-sitting, had the divide between the two candidates at 61 per cent for Mr Biden and 39 per cent for Mrs Palin.
However a focus group of independent voters gathered by the pollster Frank Luntz, whose analyses on BBC Newsnight have proved influential in British politics in recent years, called the debate in favour of Mrs Palin.
Among the group, half of whom voted for the Democrat John Kerry in 2004, (a Democrat) an overwhelming majority raised their hands to signal Mrs Palin had won the debate when asked.
While about a dozen said that Mrs Palin had changed their minds and that they would now support Mr McCain, only one person in the group said he had changed his mind in support of Mr Obama.
Other websites ran less scientific measures of voter reaction. A poll by 3,887 readers of Forbes.com found that 73 per cent believed the debate had been won by Mr Biden, with just 23 per cent plumping for Mrs Palin.
However, a similarly rough survey of almost 300,000 readers of the Drudge Report website made the split 69 per cent to 29 per cent in favour of the Republican candidate.
Google News page lists only the slanted poll results favoring Obama, when there are just as many slanted polls showing Palin as the clear winner. I watched the debate and came away with the impression that Palin had a small edge, for these reasons:
Biden kept making faces and twisting his mouth around. He would smile broadly at inappropriate times, and his responses to questions were filled with factual inaccuracies and a few clear falsehoods. He often looked shifty-eyed and devious. He also kept trying to claim that McCain is a Bush clone, which McCain clearly is not.
Palin did some sidestepping on a few responses but her answers were mostly factual and accurate in their content. She also goofed on a few facts, though, as noted in a link above.
She spoke clearly and directly to the viewing audience and had better viewer rapport. She came off as a very capable person who knew what she was about. Her energy level was high and her honesty and sincerity shone pretty brightly.
They both displayed good, solid knowledge on most topics, though I thought Palin had a clearer grasp of economic principles. It was a very close debate as far as who won on the basis of their answers, Biden took some, Palin took others. Palin did make one quick slip, which I saw was caught by Biden but no one commented on it: She called him Obiden. I thought that was a hilarious Freudian slip.
Because it was so close, I think the winner was the one displaying the most likeable personality, and that was Sarah Palin, no doubt of it. The test, to me, is which one would I rather buy a used car from, and that’s definitely Sarah Palin.
Without going over the same arguments we keep having, doesn’t what she said about Iraq bother you, given that you are against that pointless war? With her and McCain in charge the US will not leave until even the most hawkish Republicans have twigged that it is acheiving nothing.
PS You have cut the babe of week a tad too high up again.
Nope, doesn’t bother me. She’s right. The war was never pointless, just started under false pretenses. The original point was to control Iraqs oil. Now the point is that it’s THE focus point for rabid muslims. The terrorist groups actually have a small leadership that is always trying to recruit stupid young fanatics to go get themselves killed, and they’re running out of them.
Not only that but the leaders themselves are getting thinned out, and all because of that war in Iraq that’s wiping them out. You gotta love it.
No. McCain in charge will be nothing like Bush in charge. Saying otherwise is Obama propaganda. I don’t know what McCain will ultimately do but it won’t be to follow Bush’s path.
Decency, man, decency. Who knows how many twitching adolescents come here to look at my beauties and abuse themselves, as it is?
After watching the debate all I can say is… HECK. What a Gosh Darn debate. Ya know… you can betcha fer sure that all those Joe Six Packs and Hockey Moms watchin’ across the nation must feel Darn Right good about that performance up there. Heck, I’ve decided that goin’ to a game or maybe just kickin’ back with a sixer and Sarah is WAAAY better than just havin’ a beer with Dubya.
Yeah, it’s really awful that people in Alaska talk differently than people in New York such as yourself.
I agree. If you can’t say anything positive about Joe Biden or find fault with Sarah Palin, then by all means attack the way she talks.
I’m with Mr Bill on this. Nobody should ever pass up a chance to sneer at a politician, they deserve it. If you can’t think of anything to sneer at, make something up, that’s my motto.
Xogg, you don’t get it. Neither does Bill or whoever he is. You have an elected government no matter how much you may really wish you had a dictatorship, and even if you see all of them as evil, you’d better make a choice of the lesser evil and support that one. By putting them all down, you put yourself outside the system and have no right to complain when you end up with the worst of the lot.
I’m FOR McCain and Palin because I’m very much AGAINST Obama and Biden. Would you like to have an Obama running YOUR country?
Flippancy has its limits. I hate politics too. I think all politicians should be put in a cloth sack and thrown in the nearest river, but their replacements are either anarchy and a return to feudal kingdoms, or else dictatorships, much the same thing. We either try to make the best of what we have, or we lose what we’ve gained.
Well, I didn’t watch it Mr Sheep, not my country’s election after all, but I did just have a quick flip through the online report and she appears to avoid answering the question asked rather more than Biden. I do note that even the first comment on one of the links you supply yourself is entirely critical and so are many others. Don’t forget that she had been very extensively coached in advance of that debate.
You are quite right that one should not criticise a folksy manner for itself, problem is with Palin, and I have seen the odd video that supports this, is that it appears to be a mask for limited knowledge and reasoning ability.
Limited reasoning ability is what got her the governorship of Alaska and the vice presidential candidacy? Come on. What’s up, playing Devils Advocate? Well, I guess someones got to do it.