The first thing that struck me was Sen. Biden’s opening answer. Here’s Gwen Ifill’s question and Sen. Biden’s answer:

IFILL: The House of Representatives this week passed a bill, a big bailout bill, or didn’t pass it, I should say. The Senate decided to pass it, and the House is wrestling with it still tonight.

As America watches these things happen on Capitol Hill, Senator Biden, was this the worst of Washington or the best of Washington that we saw play out?

BIDEN: Let me begin by thanking you, Gwen, for hosting this.

And, Governor, it’s a pleasure to meet you, and it’s a pleasure to be with you.

I think it’s neither the best or worst of Washington, but it’s evidence of the fact that the economic policies of the last eight years have been the worst economic policies we’ve ever had. As a consequence, you’ve seen what’s happened on Wall Street.

If you need any more proof positive of how bad the economic theories have been, this excessive deregulation, the failure to oversee what was going on, letting Wall Street run wild, I don’t think you needed any more evidence than what you see now.

Sen. Biden’s talking points failed him badly. In fact, staying ‘on message’ caused him to open with a whopper. “Excessive deregulation” didn’t have a thing to do with the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis. Nothing whatsoever. Saying that it was caused by Bush administration policies is another whopper.

I’m not saying that I agree with all of President Bush’s economic policies but the crisis was set in motion when Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that penalized banks that didn’t grant enough mortgages to people who were bad credit risks. That had nothing to do with President Bush. In fact, it had to do with a bill that Sen. Biden likely voted on.

Reading through the transcript, something else jumped out at me. Here’s Gov. Palin’s answer to the same Ifill question:

You know, I think a good barometer here, as we try to figure out has this been a good time or a bad time in America’s economy, is go to a kid’s soccer game on Saturday, and turn to any parent there on the sideline and ask them, “How are you feeling about the economy?”

And I’ll bet you, you’re going to hear some fear in that parent’s voice, fear regarding the few investments that some of us have in the stock market. Did we just take a major hit with those investments?

Fear about, how are we going to afford to send our kids to college? A fear, as small-business owners, perhaps, how we’re going to borrow any money to increase inventory or hire more people.

The barometer there, I think, is going to be resounding that our economy is hurting and the federal government has not provided the sound oversight that we need and that we deserve, and we need reform to that end.

Now, John McCain thankfully has been the one representing reform. Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures. He sounded that warning bell.

People in the Senate with him, his colleagues, didn’t want to listen to him and wouldn’t go towards that reform that was needed then. I think that the alarm has been heard, though, and there will be that greater oversight, again thanks to John McCain’s bipartisan efforts that he was so instrumental in bringing folks together over this past week, even suspending his own campaign to make sure he was putting excessive politics aside and putting the country first.

Gov. Palin’s message is simple: John McCain sounded the alarm on Fannie’s and Freddie’s corruption. Then he tried enacting reforms that would’ve saved American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The other message that’s apparent is that Sen. McCain was proactive and right.

By comparison, Sen. Biden said that Barack Obama outlined a four point plan after the credit meltdown. Sen. Biden’s message: Sen. Obama is reactive. He’s also a week short and we’re a few hundred billion dollars short.

Which person would you rather have running the ship of state?

Another thing that comes through via the transcript is the rallying cry that had Frank Luntz’s dials going through the roof. Here’s that rallying cry:

PALIN: One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let’s commit ourselves just every day American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again. Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money and loaning us these dollars. We need to make sure that we demand from the federal government strict oversight of those entities in charge of our investments and our savings and we need also to not get ourselves in debt. Let’s do what our parents told us before we probably even got that first credit card. Don’t live outside of our means. We need to make sure that as individuals we’re taking personal responsibility through all of this. It’s not the American peoples fault that the economy is hurting like it is, but we have an opportunity to learn a heck of a lot of good lessons through this and say never again will we be taken advantage of.

That answer scored the highest of all the responses he’s gotten during all of the debates. It isn’t difficult figuring out why, either. Gov. Palin talked about We The People, Joe Six Pack if you will, using common sense, then appealing to Joe Six Pack to take personal responsibility for their actions. That’s an answer that’ll play well throughout the heartland, the south and the intermountain west.

Gov. Palin also attacked relentlessly, as witnessed by this excoriation of Sen. Obama on taxes:

PALIN: I would like to respond about the tax increases. We can speak in agreement here that darn right we need tax relief for Americans so that jobs can be created here. Now, Barack Obama and Senator Biden also voted for the largest tax increases in U.S. history. Barack had 94 opportunities to side on the people’s side and reduce taxes and 94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction, 94 times.

Now, that’s not what we need to create jobs and really bolster and heat up our economy. We do need the private sector to be able to keep more of what we earn and produce. Government is going to have to learn to be more efficient and live with less if that’s what it takes to reign in the government growth that we’ve seen today. But we do need tax relief and Barack Obama even supported increasing taxes as late as last year for those families making only $42,000 a year. That’s a lot of middle income average American families to increase taxes on them. I think that is the way to kill jobs and to continue to harm our economy.

the best that Sen. Biden could do is mount this feeble response:

BIDEN: The charge is absolutely not true. Barack Obama did not vote to raise taxes. The vote she’s referring to, John McCain voted the exact same way. It was a budget procedural vote. John McCain voted the same way. It did not raise taxes. Number two, using the standard that the governor uses, John McCain voted 477 times to raise taxes. It’s a bogus standard it but if you notice, Gwen, the governor did not answer the question about deregulation, did not answer the question of defending John McCain about not going along with the deregulation, letting Wall Street run wild. He did support deregulation almost across the board. That’s why we got into so much trouble.

That answer didn’t even sound good when he made it. It’s worse now that I’ve got the time to read and re-read it. Sen. Biden didn’t contest Gov. Palin’s saying that Sen. Obama whiffed 94 times to cut taxes. After not defending Sen. Obama on the taxes allegations, he returned to blaming deregulation for the Fannie/Freddie crisis.

That isn’t the only time Gov. Palin put Sen. Biden on the defensive. Here’s the time that stood out most for me:

IFILL: OK, our time is up here. We’ve got to move to the next question. Senator Biden, we want to talk about taxes, let’s talk about taxes. You proposed raising taxes on people who earn over $250,000 a year. The question for you is, why is that not class warfare and the same question for you, Governor Palin, is you have proposed a tax employer health benefits which some studies say would actually throw five million more people onto the roles of the uninsured. I want to know why that isn’t taking things out on the poor, starting with you, Senator Biden.

BIDEN: Well Gwen, where I come from, it’s called fairness, just simple fairness. The middle class is struggling. The middle class under John McCain’s tax proposal, 100 million families, middle class families, households to be precise, they got not a single change, they got not a single break in taxes. No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama’s plan will see one single penny of their tax raised whether it’s their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax. And 95 percent of the people in the United States of America making less than $150,000 will get a tax break.

Now, that seems to me to be simple fairness. The economic engine of America is middle class. It’s the people listening to this broadcast. When you do well, America does well. Even the wealthy do well. This is not punitive. John wants to add $300 million, billion in new tax cuts per year for corporate America and the very wealthy while giving virtually nothing to the middle class. We have a different value set. The middle class is the economic engine. It’s fair. They deserve the tax breaks, not the super wealthy who are doing pretty well. They don’t need any more tax breaks. And by the way, they’ll pay no more than they did under Ronald Reagan.

IFILL: Governor?

PALIN: I do take issue with some of the principle there with that redistribution of wealth principle that seems to be espoused by you. But when you talk about Barack’s plan to tax increase affecting only those making $250,000 a year or more, you’re forgetting millions of small businesses that are going to fit into that category. So they’re going to be the ones paying higher taxes thus resulting in fewer jobs being created and less productivity.

That’s a pitch-perfect response. It doesn’t give Sen. Biden an out. Instead, it really just painted him into an extremely tight corner.

Gov. Palin wasn’t done with that answer. Here’s how she stuck in the dagger and gave it a sharp twist:

Now you said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic. Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you’re not always the solution. In fact, too often you’re the problem so, government, lessen the tax burden and on our families and get out of the way and let the private sector and our families grow and thrive and prosper. An increased tax formula that Barack Obama is proposing in addition to nearly a trillion dollars in new spending that he’s proposing is the backwards way of trying to grow our economy.

That’s one right between the eyes. I’m familiar with this mindset. It isn’t exclusive to the middle class. It’s a mindset that most everyone is familiar with. Most people simply want to be allowed to prosper. Most people understand that there’s a need for government but they understand that it’s important that that government, whichever level it’s at, shouldn’t hinder the growth of prosperity.

Another thing that happened was that Gov. Palin got to talk about one of her biggest accomplishments:

PALIN: I want to go back to the energy plan, though, because this is — this is an important one that Barack Obama, he voted for in ‘05.

Senator Biden, you would remember that, in that energy plan that Obama voted for, that’s what gave those oil companies those big tax breaks. Your running mate voted for that.

You know what I had to do in the state of Alaska? I had to take on those oil companies and tell them, “No,” you know, any of the greed there that has been kind of instrumental, I guess, in their mode of operation, that wasn’t going to happen in my state.

And that’s why Tillerson at Exxon and Mulva at ConocoPhillips, bless their hearts, they’re doing what they need to do, as corporate CEOs, but they’re not my biggest fans, because what I had to do up there in Alaska was to break up a monopoly up there and say, you know, the people are going to come first and we’re going to make sure that we have value given to the people of Alaska with those resources.

“I took on those oil companies…” “the greed there that has been kind of instrumental…that wasn’t going to happen in my state.” Think of how many people hearing about her standing up for working folks. Does anyone think that they wouldn’t love having her as their advocate? I’ll guarantee that I’d love having her as Minnesota’s advocate.

This answer really impressed me:

When we talk about energy, we have to consider the need to do all that we can to allow this nation to become energy independent.

It’s a nonsensical position that we are in when we have domestic supplies of energy all over this great land. And East Coast politicians who don’t allow energy-producing states like Alaska to produce these, to tap into them, and instead we’re relying on foreign countries to produce for us.

PALIN: We’re circulating about $700 billion a year into foreign countries, some who do not like America…they certainly don’t have our best interests at heart…instead of those dollars circulating here, creating tens of thousands of jobs and allowing domestic supplies of energy to be tapped into and start flowing into these very, very hungry markets.

Energy independence is the key to this nation’s future, to our economic future, and to our national security. So when we talk about energy plans, it’s not just about who got a tax break and who didn’t. And we’re not giving oil companies tax breaks, but it’s about a heck of a lot more than that.

Sarah Palin walked America back from the tax cuts for oil companies question. then she gave a great answer about the big picture of American energy, even getting in a shot about “East Coast politicians who don’t allow energy-producing states like Alaska” to provide the resources to make America energy independent.

I was initially worried about Gov. Palin’s answer on global warming, too, given Sen. McCain’s opinion on the matter. As it turned out, her answer caused Sen. Biden to give the McCain-Palin ticket something to use:

BIDEN: Well, I think it is manmade. I think it’s clearly manmade. And, look, this probably explains the biggest fundamental difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, Governor Palin and Joe Biden.

If you don’t understand what the cause is, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a solution. We know what the cause is. The cause is manmade. That’s the cause. That’s why the polar icecap is melting.

When he says that “If you don’t understand what the cause is, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a solution”, I’d turn that back at Sen. Biden, saying that if you buy disproven MMGW data, you’ll forever search for a solution to something based on faulty facts.

Here’s my favorite exchange of the night:

PALIN: I am very thankful that we do have a good plan and the surge and the counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq that has proven to work, I am thankful that that is part of the plan implemented under a great American hero, General Petraeus, and pushed hard by another great American, Senator John McCain.

I know that the other ticket opposed this surge, in fact, even opposed funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama voted against funding troops there after promising that he would not do so.

And Senator Biden, I respected you when you called him out on that. You said that his vote was political and you said it would cost lives. And Barack Obama at first said he would not do that. He turned around under political pressure and he voted against funding the troops. We do have a plan for withdrawal. We don’t need early withdrawal out of Iraq. We cannot afford to lose there or we’re going to be no better off in the war in Afghanistan either. We have got to win in Iraq.
~~~~~
BIDEN: Gwen, with all due respect, I didn’t hear a plan. Barack Obama offered a clear plan. Shift responsibility to Iraqis over the next 16 months. Draw down our combat troops. Ironically the same plan that Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq and George Bush are now negotiating. The only odd man out here, only one left out is John McCain, number one. Number two, with regard to Barack Obama not quote funding the troops, John McCain voted the exact same way. John McCain voted against funding the troops because of an amendment he voted against had a timeline in it to draw down American troops. And John said I’m not going to fund the troops if in fact there’s a time line.

As I told Hugh last night, who’s going to believe that John McCain doesn’t support the troops? This is a man who spent 5.5 years in the Hanoi Hilton. Biden’s spin is some of the most creative spin I’ve ever heard. That’s saying alot since I went through eight years of the Clintons.

REALITY? John McCain voted to give our troops to win the war. He didn’t vote “against funding the troops”; he voted FOR victory. That’s a huge difference.

Overall, I thought Gov. Palin had Sen. Biden on the defensive most of last night. Several times, he got so flustered that his spin was easily ridiculed. I’d be remiss, though, if I didn’t highlight Sen. Biden’s ‘blowhard moment’:

Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

This is coming from a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Article I establishes the Legislative Branch; Article II the Executive Branch. The vice president is explicitly mentioned in both Article I and Article II. That’s the only office mentioned in both branches of government.

Further, vice presidents are always president of the Senate when they’re there. PERIOD. Finally, the vice president is technically paid through the Senate’s budget. You’d think that someone who’s been in Washington since LBJ’s time would know that.

I expect the polls to show a pro-McCain bounce after last night. Now it’s up to McCain to release Gov. Palin from her media bubble and let her win over women and independents while exciting the base. Getting her on Rush, Hannity, Medved, Prager and Hewitt is a must, too. There’s no sense in holding back now. It’s time to let it rip.

Technorati Tags: Debates, Sarah Palin, Energy Policy, Constitution, Dick Cheney, Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, Surge, Foreign Policy, John McCain, Drilling, Barack Obama, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. This is about the best analysis I’ve read on the debate. And I am very happy with the positions Palin’s taken. I can only hope she is just as staunch as Vice President. Certainly, talk of “windfall profits” haunts me, as it suggests that these guys just got rich for doing nothing. The government doesn’t drill for oil, refine it and move it to gas stations where people can pump it into their vehicles. These private companies do. And when you look at their MARGINS compared to other private sectors, such as IT, biotech, entertainment and others, oil companies actually aren’t all that profitable.

   Be that as it may, it’s absolutely stupid to think that the drilling for oil issue is solely an environment issue. Or solely an automotive issue, as Senator Goodwrench Obama spoke… We need the stuff from everything from makeup to flying jets through the skies, cargo ships across the seas and trains containing cars, computers and canned soup all over the fruited plain. And the more oil costs, the more EVERYTHING will cost. And it’s not good enough that we’re expected to just suck it up, pay more and use less. We need to make more, like the way the rest of the world is.

   Fortunately for us, Sarah Palin is well aware of that and is pushing to get that done. Finally.

   Comment by Dairenn Lombard — October 3, 2008 @ 3:42 pm