VP Debate Review: Grandfather vs Granddaughter

I know this may be a couple days late, but I have to give my take on the Joe Biden/Sarah Palin Vice-Presidential debate. I've been thinking of the best way I could frame the debate, and I think I've found a perfect way...

This Vice-Presidential debate was like a grandfather playing a game against his young granddaughter. The grandfather knows all the tricks in the book, has all the experience, can deliver the knockout blow whenever he wants, but because he's playing against his granddaughter he goes easy on her. Because it's his granddaughter she can never be considered a loser, and no matter the outcome it's spun into an accomplishment.

That is basically what went on at the VP debate. The bar was set so low for Sarah Palin that if she completed a sentence it would have been considered a victory. The media and this country has gone so far down the drain that the benchmark for criticizing Sarah Palin was her interview with Katie Couric. This should speak volumes about the state of journalism in America today.

As far as substance goes both of them ran circles around a lot of the questions, but Sarah Palin was more of a culprit than Joe Biden was. Gwen Ifill was a decent moderator, but not great either. The problem with these moderators is that they don't press each candidate on the issues as hard as they should. During the primaries the moderators from each news network had a clear agenda, and pushed certain candidates over others. The way these debates need to be moderated is to have the candidates positions in front of them, ask the question, and if they lie then hold their feet to the fire. The "Fact checks" should not come AFTER the debate when not everyone is watching. It should happen DURING the debate. Obviously it's hard to know what statistics will be thrown out there, but you would have to be out of touch to not know that a vote on taxes would be used during the debate.

As far as myself I'm not impressed with either of them. I find it very disturbing that the benchmark for criticism of Sarah Palin are the lower expectations of her rather than the office of the Vice-President itself.

Dre