Biden holds his own

Stuffy, Washington-entrenched, elitist senator, Joe Biden, held his own against charming, regular-gal, energy-state governor, Sarah Palin, in a nationally televised, high-stakes debate Thursday night. In recent weeks, many Americans started losing confidence in Senator Biden's proficiency in being amiable and coming across as relatable to the common American and a low bar was set for him leading up to his face off with Govern Palin. But gosh darn it, Biden stepped right over that low bar and showed the American people that he can stand right up there with the best of those small town, Washington outsiders.

When Governor Palin was down at the soccer field, talking to the mom's about how bad the economy was, Senator Biden was over at the gas station hearing from Joe Six-Pack about how he can't afford to fill his tank. When Palin invoked "what our mothers told us" about not living beyond our means, Biden was right there with a quip from his own mother, "God love'em, but he's wrong." When Palin was on Wasilla's Main Street, Biden was in Katie's restaurant in downtown Wilmington. When Palin was a mother of a special needs child, Biden was a single father with his two sons in the hospital. When Palin was giving a shout out to the third graders of Gladys Wood Elementary school, Biden was lauding the wisdom of the steel workers in Scranton. When Palin held her newborn baby in her arms after the debate, Biden was...well, okay, there was really no beating that one.

Granted there were times when Biden seemed to talk above us regular Americans by responding directly to the question asked, actually explaining some of Barack Obama's policies, and clarifying in accurate, concrete terms the philosophies of his party, while Governor Palin, with the confidence of a power forward on a team of mavericks, smiled and stated, "I may not answer the questions the way the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm gonna talk straight to the American people." Palin was definitely the more amiable in this sense and democrats everywhere surely wished their vice-presidential candidate could have done a better job of not answering the questions the way the moderator wanted to hear. Damn those greedy moderators...always wanting us to answer their questions in a way that's totally out of touch with the American people!

Palin, far more often than Biden, exuded a maverick, hockey-mom amiability by showing that she could speak to whatever issues she wanted, unfettered by the expectations of the elitist, media-woman moderator, Gwen Ifill. The following exchange on the question of supporting legislation to support homeowners in bankruptcy was telling in this regard:

Senator Biden: "...there are ways to help people now and the ways that we are offering are not being supported by the Bush administration nor do I believe by John McCain and Governor Palin."

Gwen Ifill: "Governor Palin, is that so?"

Sarah Palin: "That is not so, but because that's just a quick answer I want to talk about again, my record on energy versus your ticket's energy, uh ticket also, I think this is important to come back to..."

Still, in spite of Senator Biden's tendency to answer questions clearly and his second place performance in connecting to the typical, ignorant, image-focused American, he far exceeded the expectations laid out for him. Thursday's debate may not have been a game-changer but Senator Joe Biden certainly did not send Barack Obama's presidential campaign careening off onto a bridge to nowhere.

Speaking of Barack Obama, goodness, with all the hype around the vice-presidential candidates it seems that he has disappeared from the spotlight. Not to worry, he's probably just taking some time off in the wilderness for fasting and prayer.

But if you're still just more interested in Sarah Palin, check out this New Yorker article. I don't really approve of the article's excessive use of satire, but it's funny none-the-less.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/09/22/080922sh_shouts_saunders

Blessings in Christ.