Veep Show: Live Blog

8:20
40 minutes to showtime. I'm deliberately not watching too much pre-debate spin. I don't want to hear one side's opinion about Gwen Ifill being biased or the other side talking expectations up or down, depending on the moment. Just give me the show.

8:35
Speaking of expectations personally I don't think Palin is going to have as much trouble tonight as she had in the sit down interviews the past couple of weeks. Debates are a different animal than 1-on-1's. There are fewer opportunities to dig deeper on issues so she'll be able to play an attack dog role on Obama (as Biden will on McCain). Palin is an experienced debater from her time running for governor.

In other words I don't think there will be a repeat of Sarah's Greatest Hits collection.

8:40
Some Veep debate drinking games.

Palin:

When she leaves the g off progressive verbs or gerunds, e.g., "takin’," "leavin’," "changin’"

Every time she says "mustn’t," "maverick," "hockey mom," "Putin’s head," "pitbull," "lipstick," "thanks but no thanks" or "I’ll have to get back to you on that."

Biden:

When he mentions taking the train.

When he refers to Senator McCain as "John."

Every time he says, "Scranton" "Wall Street," "main street," "malarkey" or "Geraldine Ferraro," or refers to himself in the third person, or anyone else as his "good friend."

I don't have the liver anymore.


9:02
Gwen calls them to order. Here we go...


9:05
Biden: Bush = bad. Took him about 5 seconds to mention "middle class."
Palin: Fear that soccer moms & dads are feeling over economics.


9:10
Both seem very practiced. Palin attacks with a smile.


9:13
11 minutes, 2 "Darn right"s from Palin.

I hope Biden hammers the point home about which candidate would actually lower middle class taxes more.


9:18
Taxes:
Biden obviously feels comfortable talking taxes and impact on the middle class.
Palin's response takes issue with how to redistribute wealth.
Again, as with the first Obama/McCain debate, just depends on what your worldview is.


9:24
Neither candidate wants to take anything off the table after the $700B is committed. Obama & McCain didn't want to touch this one either when Lehrer asked the question.

9:26
Ok, we're one-third of the way through. Palin is clearly much more prepared for this than a 1:1 with Katie C.

As for JoeBi, he knows his s**t.


9:32
Palin obviously feels comfortable talking about energy.....I would argue regardless of what question Ifill asks her.

Global warming -- manmade (Biden) vs. cyclical temperature changes (Palin).


9:37
Debate shifts from taxes and energy to social issues: First up, same sex benefits. Palin gracious and tolerant in her response but clear that she does not support gay marriage.


9:47
Jumping to foreign policy to Iraq, Iran & Pakistan. I was hoping we'd get one more domestic policy question for Palin -- either her opposition of abortion even in the case of rape or incest or her thoughts on teaching creationism in public schools.

Palin calling Obama "naive." Um, that seems a bit of a stretch.


9:55
I disagree that "every administration makes blunders" quite like the last eight years.


10:00
Homestretch...2/3 of the way through.

Biden says 3 times that we spend more in 3 weeks on combat operations in Iraq than what we've spent in 7 years in Afghanistan. That's a pretty simple fact for Joe Sixpack to get his head around.


10:04
Amy's done. Disappointed in Ifill's questions. There does seem to be too much of a format where Ifill throws out a topic and lets each one ramble on to the camera. I'm an Ifill fan (even wanted her considered for Russert's replacement on MTP), but I have to agree w/ the wife.


10:15
Palin tries to rehash Reagan's successful "There you go again" line he used against Jimmy Carter in 1980.


10:17
Biden: "Dick Cheney has been the most dangerous Vice President in the history of America."


10:18
What is your Achilles' heel?
Palin talking about energy independence again.


10:24
Final question: Single issue where you had to change a long held view to accomodate circumstances....

Yawner.


10:29
Closing statements...

Palin: "I like to answer these questions without the filter of the mainstream media." Huh? She & McCain will fight for freedom so we dont' have to tell kids & grandkids about the good old days of freedom. Cold war-ish.

Biden: "Most important election you've voted for in your entire life."


Summary
I think both candidates where strong in presenting their views and their candidate's positions. In short, I think this Veep debate had a lot of pregame hype but in the end won't change anyone's positions one way or the other. It simply reinforced support for both sides.