What if Yoda were running?

Well, since Blogger apparently does not support password-protected posts, I will have to refrain from yesterday's story. Which is OK...I think the secrecy may have actually implied that it is a better story than it really is. It really wasn't that big a deal, and in fact was a pretty minor issue.

Anyway...Two things today as we prepare for the weekend. First, Munchkin is one unhappy camper today. Her beloved Cubs are NOT performing like she so desperately hoped that they would. They have already lost their first two playoff games, and there is most definitely an impending sense of doom for the spiritual residents of Wrigleyville. Plus, she stayed up way too late to watch the game, so she was crabby this morning:-P.

The only saving grace is that the friends and family members that are baseball fans are all White Sox fans, and they lost, too. So, she at least doesn't feel like she needs to take any shit from them. There are some rivalry issues...

And now, on to the debate...I found myself cringing a lot.

My take on it is a little different than what seems to be the consensus this morning. The consensus seems to be that Palin was OK, seemed likable, hit her talking points and didn't make a fool of herself. And I guess I agree with that...she had no major gaffes and gave as good as she got. But she also stumbled over her words, especially early on when she was clearly very nervous, and seemed to have some trouble responding on the fly. A lot of her sentences seemed to be written by Yoda ("Taxes cut we will, want raise they do to.")

I especially liked how she chose to answer her own questions and not the ones that were asked...lol. But, my guess is that she didn't change many opinions, positively or negatively. I felt like she missed plenty of chances to really hit him, but he probably did, too.

However, in its over-analysis of Palin, the media seems to have forgotten that there was someone else on the stage last night. And Biden's performance was, as these things go, really good. His makeup artists should be questioned on the weird yellowy skin tone;-), but his command of the arguments and his ability to deliver his message fluidly and quickly was really outstanding. This is his forum, and he showed why he is considered such a strong debater last night.

And don't get me wrong...he is totally full of shit...lol. He can talk about tax relief, but he is and always has been a liberal thinker who beleives in a larger, more active government. He shouldn't feel like he needs to apologize for that, but he seems to think he should. Despite their claims, neither he nor Obama is cutting anyone's taxes (and seriously guys...how do you cut taxes for 95% of Americans? Only about 40% actually pay taxes!!!). They are a lot of things...tax cutters is not one of them.

And he can criticize McCain all he wants, but before he was Obama's running mate, he said categorically that he would be honored to run as McCain's VP. He can question McCain's policies and proposals, but this nonsense about him thinking that McCain is wrong and clueless is just totally not believable. His skills as a debater, however, are totally top notch.

So, my final word on this, before the two of them basically disappear until 2010...it was a clear win for Biden, but probably no more or less than you would expect. This was, after all, a match-up of a six-time candidate and 36 year veteran of the world's most prominent debating society and a veteran of one state-wide Gubernatorial campaign. He should have been expected to look better, and he clearly did. She did OK, but it is an awful lot to expect someone's first debate of this type to be on this stage against that opponent.

Will this change any votes? I doubt it.