I watched the debate as well as the responses from political observers.
First, neither of the candidates made the mistakes either party was afraid they would make. Biden did not go on forever and Palin did not make herself look bad in any way at all. Neither pundit (observer) had naything bad to say about Palin, no matter how hard they tried and this is the measure of success given by the 'other side' for Sarah.
They all said ( both for and against) that she overcame the poor answers from her two previous interviews with Gibson and Couric, came out of the protective hole the GOP has hidden her in for the past 3-4 weeks and scored very well on her own. Some have said she came on like the 'pit bull' she is known to be and I can agree. She never let Biden go on to a successful answer or to effectively and conclusively leave his point uncontested, not once, without going back to it and politely chewing him to pieces on it. She just did not relent and she came out of this debate looking very strong whereas he continued the image of a life-long career politician.
Some pundits had a problem with her 'folksy' ways - didn't really speak like a DC insider (proper and clipped) but used her 'kinda', 'shoulda', 'goin', 'doin', 'Hey Joe' etc., but simply did not have anything at all concrete to try and bash her on.
I think it was a win win for the GOP - she came on strong, showed her stuff, and kept him on the defensive. She raised a concern for the dems showing that he (Biden) differed from obama in a number of ways that would change the course of gv'mt if something happened and he took over. She on the other hand consistently stayed with the party line in that she feels the Am. public would elect John McCain as President and should something happen to him she wanted the Am public to know she would continue with his agenda and not change things for a different perspective.
She constantly supported McCain while able to show philospohical differences twixt Biden and obama.
I think she took the debate, period. I think she took it with style and grace and took it on 'issues'. I think however, that if you run a scorecard and because of the Gibson/Couric traps she was led into she may have been a few points behind at the end of the debate but her overall gain in points is much better than his. Look at it this way - she came out of the hole, held her own against a seasoned politician, kept him cornered and defensive in his responses, never once made it personal but effectively used her personal charm, 'folksiness' and genuine openness, and never once let go of an issue until She was finished with it.
On a point by point basis they may now be equal but I firmly believe she gained much more ground, success and noteriety with her success in this debate and that this is really going to help the GOP.
For my personal observances to those who choose not to vote this year, for one reason or another: there is simply no good reason not to vote. You simply throw your vote to the other guy by not voting and then lose the right to complain about the other guy. You disparage the efforts of all those who fought so hard to give you the right to vote and that bothers me greatly because it does not effectively separate you from the sheeple who believe what they have been told - their individual vote doesn't count, let the electoral college vote for you..........
It seems that with some, if the candidates simply do not come from exactly where they do or exactly lived their kind of life, exactly believe the absolute same way they do or have the exact same views they do, then not a one of them is worth your vote. You can always go waste a vote by voting for someone not on the ballot but ya oughta know dang well that if you have two major contendors the only thing the 3rd guy is going to do is spoil the vote for someone else.
If you think this country is no better off with either party in office then I think you have a narrow and near-sighted view of what this country needs and how it should be led and I sure would not put you in charge of interpreting my Constitutional rights, appointing judges or making federal policy.
If you make the choice between voting or not voting you are wasting all our efforts to continue this country's progress and keep this country's freedoms alive. If you make a choice to vote for one candidate/party or the other then you have at least made the right choice. JMTCW. Mikey.
