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The McCain camp was kinda bragging before the debate. I always cringe when that happens -- it's so easy to get left with egg on your face. In this case it decidedly did not happen.
Thursday's debate in St Louis comes as a poll found that most US voters have huge doubts about Palin's experience and ability to lead. "Six in 10 voters see her as lacking the experience to be an effective president, and a third are now less likely to vote for McCain because of her," the Washington Post said of its joint poll with ABC News.
I have a mild suspicion that was a setup. She put in a damned good performance.
Palin, the Alaska governor, will be scrutinised during the debate as she has been ridiculed for the answers she gave during recent interviews. "She'll be just fine. She'll do fine tonight," McCain told MSNBC, rejecting criticism that his campaign had mishandled her by shielding her from the media. "She's experienced. She's knowledgeable. She's very strong person. I'm proud of her record, and I'm proud of her."
I don't think she knew all the details of every topic she touched on, but she knew her stuff pretty solid. If she had been a regular Rantburg reader she'da torn Joe a new one on the Pak-Afghan-Iran-Iraq topics, but I guess she can't be perfect. Biden, on the other hand, threw out some outright falsehoods -- Rove called him on a half dozen of them within minutes of the end of the debate. He also had some pretty hazy ideas about Paleostine, calling Bush's handling of it since 2000 an unmitigated disaster while ignoring the actuality of intricately interwoven move and countermove: Yasser getting caught out in the Karin A episode, losing control of the Paleos (assuming he ever had it), Zinni throwing up his hands at dealing with him, Sheikh Yassin and Rantissi getting zapped, episode after episode, Yasser croaking, dealing with Sharon, then Sharon's stroke -- none of them existed in Bidenworld, none of them needed any kind of diplo attention. There was no mention of Libya, no mention of relations with India, no mention of the shift in European politix toward conservatives and away from the sour social democracy that was running things when 9-11 occurred.