The Big Controversy

Tonight’s debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin will undoubtedly go down as one of the most watched and anticipated Vice-Presidential debates in history. Whether viewers were detractors or fans of Palin, the stakes and pre-debate drama couldn’t have been higher.

While Palin did falter once or twice (McClellon was a Civil War General, not a present-day General), she certainly did not stumble, crumble, or give ground. She hung tough, stayed on script, and her folksey banter and winks to the camera have definitely made her style more likeable to certain segments of the population than the attorney-ish demeanor of Biden, although Biden himself seemed to become a different man about half way through the debate, and his heartfelt, voice choking response to the charge that he couldn’t connect with single parents probably made him more real than the sum of his answers during the evening.

While McCain’s camp had downplayed expectations of Palin’s performance, perhaps as a hedge against a major flub, Palin seemed confident and well rehearsed, from her opening greeting of Senator Biden, when she loudly asked if she could call him Joe, to her many cleverly deceptive Republican spun references to Obama’s senatorial voting record.

One particularly odd moment came when Palin flat out stated that she had the right to choose which questions she would or would not answer when she stated that, “I may not give you the answers you’d like to hear” to both her opponent and to the moderator. It’s obvious to most people that candidates will always parse their words and responses according to rehearsed talking points and skilled maneuvering through responses that cleverly use the question to steer away to the subjects they prefer talking about. Case in point: almost 55% of the responses to tonight’s debate were about the present state of the economy, despite the fact that only a few questions were about the economy.

Overall, given the gravity of the potential for disaster on both parties parts, and the rapidly falling polls on American’s confidence in Palin being ready as VP, her performance left little room for any real criticism and was definitely strong enough for many to believe that she cleaned Biden’s clock when you consider the level of expectations coming into the debate.