Debates

Debate: definition Discussion between two parties, meant for discussing possible solutions for various crisis, but actually becoming a political WWE Smackdown.

Exaggeration? Perhaps. Regardless, much of the Vice Presidential debate was spent slamming the opposing party's candidate.

After wrestling with my Internet connection yesterday, willing it to be cooperative enough to run the broadcast of the debate from CNN.com, the program starts off with one Gwen Iffil of the News Hour as the host. She finishes her tele-prompted intro speech and out come the VP hopefuls. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware: cool, collected, obviously used to Eastern politics and debate. Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska: informal (the first words out of her mouth were "Can I call you 'Joe'?" as she and Biden shook hands), collected, with an undercurrent of butterflies.

Iffil's first question to Sen. Biden: Do you think, in regards to the Bail Out Bill whose fate is still being determined, is this the best or the worst of Washington? Biden follows with one of his few direct answers of the night, responding that "It is neither the best, nor the worst. It is, however, evidence to the fact that these last eight years under President Bush have been the worst we've ever had". He goes on to detail the four basic criteria Barak Obama says are needed for any "Rescue Plan": there has to be oversight by the Treasury, there has to be a focus on home-owners and on folks on Main Street, we have to treat tax-payers as investors, and we have to make sure that, in the long run, CEOs don't benefit from the Plan. Biden goes on to say that his previous response brings him back to the "fundamental disagreement between Gov. Palin and [Biden]", claiming that "[The Democratic Party is] gonna fundamentally change the economic policy. We're gonna focus on the middle class, because when the middle class grows, the economy grows and everybody does well." Nice, and to-the-point, no sidetracking.

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska takes the camera. Outline how any average Joe and soccer-mom Sally are going to worry about any investments they've made, how they're going to send their kids to college. Small businesses will worry about being denied loans to expand. Palin agrees with Biden that the federal government has not provided the oversight that the American public deserves and that there needs to be reform. She highlights McCain's catalyst action two years ago with mortgage giants Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, saying McCain "sounded the warning bell." One of her few smears on Biden was that he did not side with McCain to take care of the Fanny Mae/Freddy Mac issue.

Through the rest of the debate, Biden adds more and more statistics of McCain voting for tax increases, deregulation, and so on. Palin steadily lays out McCain's plans for the various questions that arose, from health care plans to the war in Iraq, throwing in the occasional jab at Obama and Biden, but all-together keeping a nice offensive. Biden seemed to be playing both sides of the court, nicely detailing Obama's plans for the future, but also throwing a good deal of cheap shots at Palin and McCain.

Is it possible, at all, to have a debate where talking about the opposing party and how they did/didn't vote for something the right way, how they did/didn't do something the right way? Is it possible spend an hour or so detailing just what we, as American citizens, are getting ourselves into with this upcoming election? I highly doubt it, but let's remain hopeful.