VP Debate Reaction

Palin won!

(Uh, yeah right)

No, she won...back the GOP base of support that has been teetering on wanting her off the ticket and back in Alaska.

I'm not going to launch into a tirade over how pitiful she was, lying through her teeth directly into the camera about Obama's tax plan. Or how painfully rehearsed she appeared to be, hitting the talking points as if on cue, but offering absolutely nothing of substance. But then again, this debate was, for her, absolutely not about substance. For her, she needed to show that she wasn't a used up dryer sheet after the warm, dry, scented laundry has been removed from the dryer. She needed to knock the personality out of the ballpark. And, doggone it, fer sure, you betcha! She was no Miss Teen South Carolina. No, she was Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People, who couldn't bring herself to feel empathy for anything, even when her opponent choked up talking about his first wife and daughter who were killed, and his two sons who were critically injured. Nope. Pull that string and launch into a folksy volley about bein' a maverick!

OK, so I lied about the tirade part...

For me, one of the clear moments where Palin was just so fricking out of her league came right after Biden laid out Obama's "fundamental difference" with McCan't over the Iraq War. Her response that Obama was "a white flag of surrender" fell flat, at least according to Ohio voters. In particular, she suggested that the US commanders in Iraq "will tell us" when the conditions have been met for our job to be done there.

Got news for ya, lady -- the President? He's the Commander in Chief of the US military. He'll be the one to tell us when conditions have been met, using the advice of his generals on the ground. Bush's trick of ceding responsibility for the war to the generals in the field has been played out, and it has failed. Petraeus has moved up the chain of command because his brilliant military mind is no longer needed there, as things have stabilized enough so that troops can begin coming home, just as Obama has advocated and as Bush has complied. Petraeus has moved over to Central Command, with oversight of Afghanistan because that's the real theater in the "war" on terror, just as Obama has observed and Bush has agreed. As Biden said this evening, the odd man out in this whole mess is John McCan't.

Palin -- neutralized.

Biden -- validated.

Next!