Hamilton, Madison, and Jay

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Friday, October 3, 2008

Debate reactions; Sarah shines; Joe blows

The debate last night was great; better than the first presidential debate. How do we know this? Look at the MSM's spin of this, and you'll see that Joey Plugs got knocked out in round three, and Sarah-cuda kept stomping on him. Gwen Ifill was such a non-factor last night that even her attempts to try and give the night to Plugs didn't work because Sarah shined. As Peggy Noonan notes today she did something that we haven't seen in many years -- "talk over the heads of the media straight to the people." She barely took note of Ifill, and only looked at Biden on occasion. The rest of the time she focused on the camera and spoke directly to the nation.

Biden didn't help Obama at all last night. He sounded tired, looked tired, and flew by the seat of his pants when it came to being truthful. Captain Ed has the list of the 14 lies told in last night's debate. But the media isn't paying any attention to that, and we knew that would happen. They're having too much fun at the single mistake Sarah Palin made, which was screwing up the name of the general in Afghanistan. Talk about petty. But yet Joe gets a pass when he claimed that NATO kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon. (Frankly, even though he presumes to know foreign policy, we doubt he knows the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas.) Take a look at the Biden lies from last night:

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

2. AHMADINEJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.

5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.

7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people’s health insurance coverage — they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false

8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska — she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it’s not a windfall profits tax.

9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

10. REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation — he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.

11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.

12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won’t pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

And on that Ahmadinejad lie, we'd like to give a reminder to Obama supporters out there as to exactly what he said, and we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that Biden attacked him on this point. He did say he'd meet with Ahmadinejad -- and others -- without preconditions. Slublog at AoSHQ points out that the boast is still on Obama's official campaign website, so he's not backing away from his promise to meet with the thugs of the world without preconditions.

For a laugh, check out the photos Jim Hoft posted showing the rally that greeted Sarah Palin last night after the debate. Scroll to the bottom, and take note of the somber media section, and the Obama campaign headquarters in St. Louis that had no celebration. THAT is a telling picture, and it's obvious the media isn't paying it much attention. Why is it telling? A picture is worth a tousand words, and most of the words will revolve around how Joe Biden didn't have a good debate last night.

Don't get us wrong. Joe did his level best last night, and he avoided any embarrassing gaffes. But every time he launched an attack on McCain Sarah Palin was right there to answer it, and she got in her shots on both Obama and Biden. Marcie noted that Sarah did what she did at her RNC speech: she stuck the knife in, twisted it, and gave the viewers a smile. So Joe's best wasn't enough for him to win the night.

The night truly belonged to Sarah Palin. After two sub-par interviews with the MSM, she followed it up with a really good interview with Sean Hannity, and her first radio interview with Hugh Hewitt. Mark Steyn commented last night on Hugh's show that McCain screwed up her roll-out by not having her out and about on TV, on the radio, dealing with the New Media, etc., which led to the opposition pieces Kathleen Parker and Rod Dreher. Both said they disliked McCain's choice, and Ms. Parker called for John McCain to dump her from the ticket.

Those opinions were expected. And it is due, in no small part, to the McCain camp keeping her sequestered from everyone. Granted, you have to bring her up to speed on the national stage, but she should have been allowed to go out and be herself. That's what we saw last night. Sure, her studies and preparation for the debate showed, too, but it really was about her -- her values, her beliefs -- and it appealed to the people who watched.

Forget what the MSM says. They're in the tank for Obama. Had Joe Biden stunk up the debate last night, which he didn't (I did say he did his level best), the MSM would being saying his performance was a slam dunk. (I will criticize Biden for the crocodile tears he tried to conjure up last night. "Hey Joe! It didn't work for Hillary!") Hell, Biden could have tripped over his feet every time he spoke, and the MSM would have still said he won. They won't ever say she won, and their praise of her will be limited, if there's any at all.

She did a very good job. When I called into Hugh's post-debate show last night, I admitted that she did better than what we initially expected. We expected her to be a little apprehensive, even intimidated by Biden. But that wasn't present last night. She was confident. She was spot-on. Her zingers were poignant. And best of all, she was allowed to just be herself. That's what appealed to us when he chose her, and I predict that by Monday the poll numbers will swing back in McCain's favor.

Publius II

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great recap, the Joe the Gaffe Machine let this beauty out......"When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it."

Out of Lebanon?

Joe Biden, you are a gift the Republicans.

October 3, 2008 at 3:43 PM  

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