Opinion: Debate won, but race still on

October 08, 2008
Armando Vega
Staff Writer

Last Thursday, the Vice-Presidential candidates lined up at at Washington University in St. Louis for the one and only vice-presidential debate to take place.

Ultimately, Joe Biden came away as the more knowledgeable candidate (though at times he would seem to stutter and trip over his own words as much as Palin), whereas Sarah Palin’s presentation was more odious: as college students might recognize, she came across as if having crammed for weeks on a forty-five minute essay-based final exam in a political science course, and when blindsided on a question would resort to the old standby of, pardon, spewing B.S.

The debate was certainly very friendly, with Biden’s references to his dearly loved “friend” McCain, the contestants’ repeated references to familial sacrifice (sons going to Iraq, deceased wives as former teachers), and a restraint shown, at least on the part of Joe Biden, in attacking with tenacity the oft-ridiculous arguments of Sarah Palin.  The reasoning behind this restraint is clear enough: too thorough a throttling of Palin by Biden would have been deleterious to his efforts in securing the women’s vote.  But where was Gwen Ifill?  Palin would at times blatantly refuse to answer the moderator’s question, repeatedly jumping instead to the last and at one point stating “And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.”

As Joe Klein puts it in a piece for Time magainze, “Talk straight she didn't, with only a few exceptions. She talked talking points… That Palin made it through the debate without running off the stage shouting, "I can't do this!" should not obscure the fact that there was only one person tonight whom anyone with any sense — even John McCain, I imagine — would trust as President.”

Klein’s is a real concern, but in politics perception equals reality.   Nearly 70 million viewers tuned into the debate on Thursday, compared to 52.4 million for last week’s debate between the ticket headliners.  Sarah Palin was the draw, for reasons working both for and against her favor.  She’s generated a lot of enthusiasm and energy into this year’s Republican ticket, but I suspect many viewers were also practicing a bit of NASCAR-inspired voyeurism—seated with snacks and waiting for Sarah Palin to do her best impression of Miss South Carolina.

That Palin didn’t drop a redux of the now infamous Katie Couric interview (and let’s remember that it’s much easier to get dodgy at one of these debates than when seated face-to-face with a reporter) means that ultimately this debate will have amounted to just one thing: this historic race for the White House isn’t any closer to being settled.