If this had been a job interview, Joe Biden would have been passed over for not saying anything about himself or calling Palin on her fabrications and Palin would have been passed over for hardly answering any of the moderator's direct questions.
Why Biden Lost:
1. He spoke too often and for too long about his Senate history, sending people across the country to their respective bathrooms and fridges.
2. He spoke more about what Barack Obama would do and not enough about his own feelings on the issues.
3. He let Palin have all but a free ride throughout. The Democrats, as usual, were too sensitive to whatever charge is being leveled at them by their opponents and Fox News (in this case, "Democrats are sexist; they're being too hard on Sarah Palin.") Biden missed opportunities to call Palin out for avoiding moderator Gwen Ifill's direct questions by always changing the subject ("but I want to go back to...") Of course, if Biden had treated her as an equal-- gasp!-- and attacked her as he would have attacked a Joe Lieberman or a Mitt Romney, there would have been an uproar and Biden would have come off, at least in the eyes of some people, as "mean."
Why Palin Lost:
1. Instead of answering questions, as we previously mentioned, she ducked them and brought the discussion back to her talking points...
2. ...proving that she hasn't learned anything these past weeks. Those pundits who said she had "improved" are oblivious to the fact that she hadn't changed at all-- the format had been changed. There's a big difference between Couric's "can you name another Supreme Court case besides Roe v. Wade that you disagree with?" and Ifill's sort-of "what do you think?" freestyling that let Palin off the hook. In a real town hall, or with a moderator who had the guts to press her when she avoided questions, the Governor would've been a goner.
3. She pushed the "just folks" style so hard, it came off as phony. CNN's focus group of a undecided Ohio voters gave her negative marks when she brought out the "darn it's" and "God bless 'im's."
But they didn't fight to a standstill. Despite all this, the public did see a clear winner in Biden, by a margin of 51 to 36. But Biden could have mopped the floor with her if he had pulled the lid off on her strategy of fight toward the middle-- or fighting toward competency, if you will. And, of course, if the public thought Palin lost, Palin lost. There's no getting around that.
On CBS, Sharyl Atkinson said:
"By a margin of two to one, 46% of our uncommitted voters thought Biden won, 21% Palin, 33% saw it as a tie. More importantly, perhaps, how many of those uncommitted voters made up their mind as a result of the debate. 18% told us they are now committed to Obama. 10% now committed to McCain and 71% still uncommitted."
This was a perfect chance for the Obama camp to bring in undecided voters-- Palin is a sitting duck, just waiting to be taken down. 71% say it was a blown opportunity...
Photo via Reuters.
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