But above all, Mr. Biden displayed an obvious capacity to speak coherently about the major policy issues of the day. If one of the key tests for vice presidential candidates is to show Americans that they can take over the presidency, Mr. Biden passed with flying colors.And this is a nice supplement:
The same, however, cannot be said about Ms. Palin. After her disastrous recent interviews with CBS’s Katie Couric, the bar on her abilities was set at an absurdly low level, and from that starting point she did an adequate job. But only by these artificially low standards, could her performance be considered successful. From a substantive standpoint, Ms. Palin’s performance was, for lack of a better word, abysmal.
Her understanding of major policy issues is clearly paper thin; her answers sounded like strung together talking points that were often incoherent and contradictory; aside from energy-related issues, she offered almost no actual policy solutions; and more often than not she failed to answer the moderator’s questions — a point she even boasted about — relying instead on sound bites, catch phrases and folksy expressions. (It is also worth noting that the moderator, Gwen Ifill, did a strikingly poor job. Her questions were badly formed and she rarely challenged the candidates when they failed to answer her questions.)
Ms. Palin was clearly focused on sounding “genuine,” labeling herself and Mr. McCain as reformers and mavericks (a word she used six times). But a presidential election is, at least theoretically, not an authenticity contest; it must reflect a serious and sober understanding of significant policy issues.
Ms. Palin’s errors were not inconsequential. In talking about climate change, she noted, “I don’t want to argue about the causes. What I want to argue about is, how are we going to get there to positively affect the impact.” But, as Mr. Biden correctly pointed out, determining the cause of climate change is the sine qua non for minimizing the impact.
Her answer on the responsibilities of the vice presidency was downright bizarre. First she said that “I’m thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president’s policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.” Then she said. “Well, our Founding Fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president.”
In fact, the Constitution does nothing of the sort and describes only one responsibility for the office: president of the Senate. But this was par for the course last night: Ms. Palin’s answers were platitudinous and generally devoid of substance. To reread the transcript of Ms. Palin’s performance is revelatory; she simply does not have a keen grasp of the questions being asked of her and doesn’t show any of the policy awareness that Mr. Biden displayed. It is increasingly unclear whether Ms. Palin has the necessary qualifications and capabilities to be a heartbeat away from the presidency...
As Biden showed quite convincingly when he spoke about his modest background and his continuing connection with Main Street, perceptive, intelligent discourse is in no way identical with elitism. Palin's phony populism is as insulting to working- and middle-class Americans as it is to American women. Why are basic diction and intellectual coherence presumed to be out of reach for "real people"?Gotcha! Say it ain't so Joe! You betcha! Geez, I think it's pretty clear that the Republicans are trying to make a farce of our system.
...Well, at least we have Tina Fey and SNL (yet again) to make a farce of the farce!
I also enjoy how McCain has all but announced that he's going to move his campaign as far away from the issues as possible in order to go negative. Attack in desperation, anyone? But he has to have advisers who are telling him that this is a bad move. After all, as soon as you admit that you're going to sling mud, wouldn't almost everyone start questioning the legitimacy of everything you say? Ohhh boy this could get interesting.
