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(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The media tried to write off Sarah Palin after she revealed that her daughter was pregnant. Then she stood up at the convention and dazzled the country. She silenced her critics then, and she did it again during the vice presidential debates.
More importantly, she exceeded everyone's expectations. They had been set pretty low after the Katie Couric interviews, which, in my opinion, had been edited in an unflattering manner. Joe Biden also did well, of course. But it was Sarah Palin who was on trial here.
After charges of extreme conflict of interest, Gwen Ifill generally came across as fair. Her upcoming book about the Obama generation, however, gave Palin the opening she needed to set the tone of the evening: "I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you [referring to Biden] want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also."
In that one statement, Palin took control of the debate away from Ifill. Having learned from the pop-quiz format of recent interviews, Palin was determined not to be knocked off message.
McCain has proposed to allow health care companies to cross state lines. The Obama/Biden campaign is trying to convince America that this sort of "deregulation" will bring lead to another crisis like the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. Palin chose to not respond to this ridiculous assertion, but later struck her "enough is enough" theme.
After Biden asserted that the Bush administration's foreign policies had been an abject failure, Palin responded by saying that "when we talk about the Bush administration, there's a time, too, when Americans are going to say, 'Enough is enough with your ticket,' on constantly looking backwards, and pointing fingers, and doing the blame game."
After Biden accused Palin of not answering how McCain/Palin would be different from Bush/Cheney, she stated that "but the surge principles that have worked in Iraq need to be implemented in Afghanistan". Biden then asserted that "our commanding general in Afghanistan said the surge principle in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan".
In reality, General McKiernan has said that Afghanistan would need an infusion of American troops "as quickly as possible." He has also emphasized that what is required is a "sustained commitment" to a counterinsurgency effort that could last many years and would ultimately require a political, not military, solution."
For me, Biden's lowest points were when he began referring to himself in third person, such as "no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden". He did it three times.
