Wow...she just shot herself in the foot with her opening to the same-sex benefit reply where she commented that extending benefits (e.g. visitation rights, property ownership, insurance etc.) nationwide is a slippery slope to allowing same-sex marriage.

It'll please the hardcore republican fanbase...but they were already voting for her. She should have worded that better to please moderates.

she fked up big time on Iraq

WOW

Someone please give Palin a pronounciation lesson, and stop her from saying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to wipe everyone off the Earth with nuclear weapons. It sounds a bit loony.

Edit: And Biden nails her on it. I'm surprised. I wasn't aware he (or anyone in the US) knew Ahmadinejad didn't have those powers/responsibilities.

It's nice to know you and McCain will be making huge blunders Palin.

Congratulations Palin, on once again completely ignoring the question posed to you. She asked about your greatest weakness, not for you to ramble on about how great America is.

Bah... all right.

She could have made a surprise victory with better timing on killer lines, not so much smiling and less family.
I don't think she came out as "6 packs joe" hero as she wanted, she played it too much.

Biden was quick to recover, made no gaffe somehow... so... no real shock.

debates are pointless to most of us on this forum.  the only people that they really affect are those who dont listen or understand politics. 

what kinda disappionted me about reading the comments on this forum was that some of you seemed to take special notice of fluff pieces or how someone looked or how they talked.  This reflects the general population well.  many of them view elections as a type of beauty contest where the most popular guy at school wins not necissarily the one who will be the best. 

this idea of a vast amount of people being totally ignorant of politics is shown in that post-debate summaries all of the news agencies do.  they are telling people who are too stupid to actually pay attention to the debate they just friking watched what to think about it. 

that said i thought the debate was very pointless.  however it showed palin to be a great speaker breaking the negative predjudices against her.

Presentation is a very important part of debates Soth. Debates are a fusion of presentation and argumentation. Both are important.

If you just want the platforms, they're readily available online, as are each sides arguments against the other. And given that many of the facts that both sides spew come with caveats, it pretty much reduces political debates to battles for perception and presentation instead of actual facts and issues (unless of course someone screws up big and makes a huge gaffe).

I tend to watch them for entertainment I don't think I've ever decided (here in Canada) who to vote for based on a debate. They're just not a good forum for that.

> Theodora wrote:

> Presentation is a very important part of debates Soth. Debates are a fusion of presentation and argumentation. Both are important.

If you just want the platforms, they're readily available online, as are each sides arguments against the other. And given that many of the facts that both sides spew come with caveats, it pretty much reduces political debates to battles for perception and presentation instead of actual facts and issues (unless of course someone screws up big and makes a huge gaffe).

I tend to watch them for entertainment I don't think I've ever decided (here in Canada) who to vote for based on a debate. They're just not a good forum for that.
_________________________________________________--

atleast you understand that theo.  thats why i believe those of us here have a higher grasp on these things than most people.  however, others are going to change there vote based on things like this.  i agree with you though, this is nothing more than entertainment.

Biden was a moron and Palin read from a piece of paper the whole time. She looked down at her notes every like every figgin 20 seconds! Screw it! They're all morons! I'm voting Stewart / Colbert!

That debate was a waste of time =p

Biden did a good job. Palin....not so much.

She did a good job of saying anything absolutely stupid like she's been doing the past few weeks. She didn't do any real debating though. She just repeated herself over and over using up most of the time allowed to her so that she could sidestep the questions. She didn't really talk about anything either, she just quoted McCain's speeches a lot and sounded like she was either reading a teleprompter or rehearsing answers. She made a lot of accusations but didn't really support anything she said. But at least she saved face and hung in there for the most part. She didn't really buckle under pressure and she kept up enough of an image to sway those who aren't really listening to the politics but to the bs side of the politics. She probably messed up with the gay thing though. That could've been handled a lot better.

Biden did an excellent job at handling the issues but he didn't really do anything to make Palin look uncapable of being president to the average retarded American. I'm certain those who supported her are still in support of her. He also didn't really point out much we don't already know about the campaign's views from both parties. Though he did a better job in delivering than obama did.

The winner?

The Moderator. She did a great job in not being biased and keeping the timing in check. She also made ppl stfu and answer the question from time to time. I'm voting for HER!