Fact Checking the VP Debate

Did any body else notice that when ask what she would do as VP that her answer was that she would continue Cheney's exta constitutional powers as part of the legislative branch. that according to her the constitution allows "flexibility" in the duties of the VP. She at least implied that she had the authority to set the agenda of the Senate as it's presiding officer.

TexasLouie,

Thank you! You made me spew my Pepsi at the screen. Baby, you can drive my car.

Real change is coming, and McCain/Palin are delivering that change. Glad you noticed and spoke up.

I'm stubborn-- I still won't admit The One can walk on water. Guess that makes me a heretic.

IMO Palin did even worse in the debate than in the Couric interviews.

She talked a whole lot more, but thought a whole lot less. In fact, she didn't think or reflect at that. Aftdr Ifill pushed the You Can Talk Now button Palin spewed out the talking points she memorized this week. She didn't care about answering the questions, showing disrespect for the debate, the moderator, her opponent and the audience: millions of American voters. And that's all she did. She turned her contribution to the "debate" into a Hi, I'm Sarah, You Betcha! show.

Disgusting.

if mccains 1st major decision of this election is indicitive of his decision making skills then that says a lot...palin could not had been a worse choice!!!i was not totally decided which way i would go but the palin choice changed that rapidly!!!she does not have a clue..send her back to the state of 700,000....she is not ready for the big league......

You guys can yammer on about Biden all you want, but Sarah Palin ate his lunch. She was solid and substantive and more than held her own. Biden did his usual "hey, I'm a regular guy" routine but standing next to an authentic "regular gal," it did not work. He threw out a lot more details, but does that count when so many of those details were just plain wrong? He did not connect with people as she did.

Some of you are ranting that Palin did not answer the questions asked. Well, duh, the participants in a debate rarely do. Biden did not, either. The difference is that Palin said right up front that she was not necessarily going to "answer the questions the way you or the moderator want me to." He did the same thing but did not say so out loud. I'm not concerned when she wants to turn so many questions into talks about energy policy and he wants to turn them into questions about Bush's policies.

Sarah Palin did a great job last night. Is it that hard to admit?

Wow - hard to believe we watched the same debate...

OK... OK... You've finally convinced me... OBIDEN can walk on water. I'll vote for them AND, to be consistent, will now let my 8 year old start driving me everywhere. SHE believes in change and really, really wants to drive, so, why not...

Palin is a camp phenomenon.*

Biden should be our next VP, Palin should have her own reality show "BETCHA!" with the whole family in it, or simply do commercials after Troopergate will have made her lose her job as Governor.

For Palin voters: check Susan Sontag's Notes On Camp.

Joe Biden has a reputation not only for gaffes but also for dissembling. Of course he sounded smooth last night, since he never let facts get in his way while making a point. Throwing out a lot of facts is not so impressive when so many of those facts are simply wrong.

I'm not just talking about matters open to interpretation-- all politicians do that spin, and Sarah Palin was no exception. However, he said a lot of factually unsupportable things, ranging from "Obama never said he would meet with Ahmadenajad" to "McCain voted with Barack on those bills" to his ridiculous claim that we have spent less on the war in Afghanistan than on three weeks of the war in Iraq. And while it is nitpicking, it seems to me that a Senator who trumpets the fact that he teaches a constitutional law class now and again should surely know that it is not Article I of the Constitution that deals with the executive branch and the office of vice president-- it's Article II.

Palin managed to regurgitate the nine or ten talking points that have been implanted in her brain...even when they were completely irrelevant to the question at hand.

All that winking and nose wrinkling had me awaiting the swimsuit competition. Does she think that the 100,000 Americans who lost their jobs last month are going to be reassured by "cute?" All she managed to do was stave off further calls for her head from the right wing commentariat.

Of more interest is an Alaska judge's decision not to stop the legislature's investigation into her handling of Troopergate. The report's due out on October 10th. McCain lurches from one mess to another.

Joe Biden was substantive, thoughtful and in command. Sarah Palinignored virtually every question and stuck to generalities andplatitudes. Yes Palin didn't stumble as she did during the Katie Couricinterviews. But she didn't impress, either. It was all boilerplate--like she was giving a scripted pep talk, not proving she could handlethe toughest job in the world. Biden kept his cool, even though he clearly had a much greatermastery of virtually every subject discussed. He kept the heat onJohn McCain--where it should be--and forcefully defended Obama whenPalin made ludicrous claims about transferring the surge toAfghanistan or "waving the white flag of surrender" in Iraq. I'm a little surprised to see the talking heads on TV talking aboutwhat a great job Palin did. Maybe they just want this race to becloser than it currently looks. But most swing voters, in an instantsnapshot, thought otherwise. According to a CBS poll, 46 percent of uncommitted voters who watchedthe debate tonight thought Joe Biden was the winner. 21 percentthought Sarah Palin won, 33 percent thought it was a draw. According to a CNN poll, 51 percent of voters though Biden won,compared to 36 percent for Palin. (Only voters polled by Fox, surprise surprise, gave it to Palin.) Before the debate, 54 percent of CNN voters said Palin wasunqualified to be vice president. After the debate, that number (53percent) only changed by a point. Maybe, for once, substance prevailed over style.

Palin dodged most of the questions and would just go off on her canned phrases. Why was Gwen Ifill afraid to call her on it? Why was she allowed to completely ignore what was asked and start talking about everything that was unrelated to the actual question? As a woman, I'm furious that when we finally get a shot, this is what McCain presents to the world. There are plenty of republican women who are qualified for this but no, he rolls out cute and folksy and embarassing.
The media needs to be honest about the fact that this woman just went out into left field all night and didn't answer the questions. If that had been Joe Biden, the media would tear him up.

Palin lost tonight because there were no sticking points. Do you remember anything she said about Main Street? Did she say anything new? Did she answer any of the questions? Did she defend McCain's issues? She was bobbing and weaving so much I didn't know if it was a debate or sparring match. When Palin can discuss topics in depth she will begin to get America to trust her. This surface bull is just that bull!

I can understand a republican trying to spin Palin's performance but I am getting tired of the media being scared of republicans’ criticism and acting like Palin did almost as good as Biden.

Look at the facts people.

Palin did not answer any questions put forth by the Moderator. Why was Palin allowed to ignore the questions and format of the debate? Why is she so special? She failed and the Moderator was too scared to say a word. Just because she did better than expected is a meaningless goal. She should have had the same expectation as Biden. She did not know any facts, all she did was advertise McCain's talking points. THAT WAS NOT A DEBATE.

People, Palin did NOT KNOW the duties of the VP as defined by the constitution. She believes that as VP she can do what she wants in Washington and ignore the constitution. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? She wants to be VP of the United States and impose her will upon Congress. They call that a dictator when there are no separation of power.

Media should tell it like it is. Palin should get a F in this debate. When people take the same test, they are not scored relative to their own level of knowledge, unless they are in kindergarten. We are dealing with the 2nd most important, and could be the most important, position in the world.

Republicans, wake up, this is not a game. Why are you so interested in someone whose only purpose is to ridicule democrats? We know why you are this way. You believe that democrats will destroy this country, and you must win at all costs. You are scared that big bad Obama is going to take away your gun (actually it’s our guns since I own 4 guns myself) and tax everyone to death. Because of that irrational fear instigated by the right wing of the republican party, you are willing to have a VP who is out of here league.

I nearly came down with radiation sickness.

“…alternative fuels will be tapped into: the NUCULAR, the clean coal.”

“An armed, NUCULAR armed especially Iran is so extremely dangerous… They cannot be allowed to acquire NUCULAR weapons period.”

“[Ahmadinejad] is not one whom we can allow to acquire NUCULAR energy, NUCULAR weapons.”

“…Ahmadinejad who would seek to acquire NUCULAR weapons…”

“NUCULAR weaponry, of course, would be the be all, end all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet, so those dangerous regimes, again, cannot be allowed to acquire NUCULAR weapons, period.

“Our NUCULAR weaponry here in the U.S. is used as a deterrent. And that's a safe, stable way to use NUCULAR weaponry.”

“…make sure that leaders like Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinejad are not allowed to acquire, to proliferate, or to use those NUCULAR weapons.”

Sarah Palin refuses to defend John McCain's record on deregulation.

It's almost like she thinks she's running for 2012.

Joe Biden's 14 Lies

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”

4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.

5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate.

6. ALERNATIVE ENERGY VOTES: According to FactCheck.org, Biden is exaggerating and overstating John McCain’s record voting for alternative energy when he says he voted against it 23 times.

7. HEALTH INSURANCE: Biden falsely said McCain will raise taxes on people's health insurance coverage -- they get a tax credit to offset any tax hike. Independent fact checkers have confirmed this attack is false

8. OIL TAXES: Biden falsely said Palin supported a windfall profits tax in Alaska -- she reformed the state tax and revenue system, it's not a windfall profits tax.

9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.

10. REGULATION: Biden falsely said McCain weakened regulation -- he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie.

11. IRAQ: When Joe Biden lied when he said that John McCain was “dead wrong on Iraq”, because Joe Biden shared the same vote to authorize the war and differed on the surge strategy where they John McCain has been proven right.

12. TAX INCREASES: Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

13. BAILOUT: Biden said the economic rescue legislation matches the four principles that Obama laid out, but in reality it doesn’t meet two of the four principles that Obama outlined on Sept. 19, which were that it include an emergency economic stimulus package, and that it be part of “part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20.”

14. REAGAN TAX RATES: Biden is wrong in saying that under Obama, Americans won't pay any more in taxes then they did under Reagan.

Debate happened as I expected, Biden winning on policy and knowledge, Palin on 'style' { if you like her 'rap'}.

Blue, is the color that is spreading on the electoral map... Republicans may complain and spew might blasts of invective, but, it will not change the reality of the upcoming election.
No doubt Republicans will get uglier as the election nears, it will not help McCain.

Obama's statement: 'They are proud of their own ignorance" still holds true.

Crazy Joe, 10 major lies in 90 minutes. Not bad for him.

Biden clearly won this debate...Palin's coaching had some major holes in it.

Biden showed great understanding of the situation and good knowledge on foreign policy compared to McCain who shot down Obama saying I've been to Afghanistan I've been to Georgia I've been there you're naive the whole media said McCain is better on foreign policy if Biden would've performed like McCain talking down to lipstick how would've republicans reacted??? The same old victim card.