Vice-President of the United States



Sarah Palin was reading off note cards? Nice.

No wonder I was confused about Sarah Palin's body language. She didn't just sound like she was heavily scripted. She sounded like she was reading cue cards or even a tele-prompter.


Because the cable and network television stations did not show a split screen of the debate, most viewers could not see that, during Joe Biden’s answers, Palin spent almost all her time looking down and studiously reading her notes. But viewers did see that when Palin delivered her answers, she would repeatedly glance down to check her talking points.

ThinkProgress has compiled a video documenting some of the instances where it was clear to the audience that Palin was propped up by written responses.

What's outrageous is that I actually questioned my judgment and bias when I mentioned last night that it looked like she was reading off cards. I couldn't fathom her reading off cue cards she'd have hidden in her jacket.

Wow.
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Joe Biden's best moments during the VP debate

Even though pollsters are saying that VP debates have little impact on outcome of elections, I have to say that last night it was Joe Biden's playground and he drank everybody's milkshake.

Mark (the father of my children) and I were watching the debate last night and were actually blown away by Joe Biden's performance. It wasn't that we didn't think he'd be good coming into the debate. It's just that compared to his performance during the primaries this may have been Biden's best debate performance yet.

Make no mistake though, it wasn't because he was against someone who was because he was against someone with less experience or intellect. Sarah Palin proved she could hold her own against Biden.

Biden had only one major opponent last night and that was himself. He needed to beat the image people had of him as being a bit of a bumbling idiot and it's for that matter that he totally knocked it out of the park.

It really was a great night for the boy from Scranton.

Biden was focused :

Now, with regard to the -- to the health care plan, you know, it's with one hand you giveth, the other you take it. You know how Barack Obama -- excuse me, do you know how John McCain pays for his $5,000 tax credit you're going to get, a family will get?

He taxes as income every one of you out there, every one of you listening who has a health care plan through your employer. That's how he raises $3.6 trillion, on your -- taxing your health care benefit to give you a $5,000 plan, which his Web site points out will go straight to the insurance company.

And then you're going to have to replace a $12,000 -- that's the average cost of the plan you get through your employer -- it costs $12,000. You're going to have to pay -- replace a $12,000 plan, because 20 million of you are going to be dropped. Twenty million of you will be dropped.

So you're going to have to place -- replace a $12,000 plan with a $5,000 check you just give to the insurance company. I call that the "Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere."

yet at times folksy:

John McCain said there would be enough oil to pay for this. John McCain has been dead wrong. I love him. As my mother would say, god love him, but he's been dead wrong on the fundamental issues relating to the conduct of the war.

Yet the two most spectacular moments for Joe Biden came first when he tore into the "Maverick" meme :



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Sarah "how long have I been at this, like five weeks?" Palin

Sarah Palin was no light-weight. She did what she needed to do which was to hold her own against Joe Biden and that's exactly what she did. Unfortunately she did so with what I call "playing political footsie".

Whenever she didn't have any substantive to say she'd go all cutesy, wink to the camera, bob her head or tear into a cheerleader cheer for her "boss". Cute for TV but not for actual government. Especially from a woman who allegedly said yesterday that her favorite vice-president was George H. Bush because he eventually went on to becoming President of the United States.

Honey, I don't want this woman near the White House, ESPECIALLY after this infamous moment :



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Uncommitted Voters give the VP debate to Joe Biden


CBS did a poll of uncommitted voters and asked the following :

Who won the debate? 46% say Biden, 21% Palin

Both candidates had their image improve with the debate but the two most important questions of the night were uncategorically in favor of Biden. 

"Who is prepared to be Vice-President?" Before the debate Biden had 81% but his numbers went up to 97% after the debate. Palin gates a passing grade of 55% (that would be a D- or F+) after the debate, up from 39%.

Yet it is the "Who has the ability to be an effective President?" question that is the killer : Biden was at 66% before the debate. He jumped up to 91%. Palin doesn't pass the test at all having gone up to 44% from a low of 35%.
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"Sarah Palin and the rape kits" is not a punk rock band (but it explains her interview with Katie Couric)


Skepticism about Palin has been growing and for a good reason.

I've watched the segment where Sarah Palin talks about Roe vs. Wade and I have to tell you, I think it is one of the most insightful commentaries to come out of her mouth. I think she did a really good job at sounding level headed.

Yet listen to it very closely and what you can hear is an extremist taking her political views for a little mainstream spin and, fortunately for us, coming short.

So let me back track here a bit and go back to and issue that popped up a few weeks ago : Under then Mayor Palin, Wassilla was one of a handful of cities in Alaska that charged victims for rape kits. And what has been most astounding about this policy is Palin's response to the allegations : She claims to have not know about the practice. This from a woman that was voted into office in Wassilla by less than 7,000 votes.
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QUOTES

Data from the 2002 survey indicate that by age 20, 77% of respondents had had sex, 75% had had premarital sex, and 12% had married; by age 44, 95% of respondents (94% of women, 96% of men, and 97% of those who had ever had sex) had had premarital sex. Even among those who abstained until at least age 20, 81% had had premarital sex by age 44. Among cohorts of women turning 15 between 1964 and 1993, at least 91% had had premarital sex by age 30. Among those turning 15 between 1954 and 1963, 82% had had premarital sex by age 30, and 88% had done so by age 44.

Conclusions. Almost all Americans have sex before marrying. These findings argue for education and interventions that provide the skills and information people need to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases once they become sexually active, regardless of marital status.

— Lawrence B. Finer

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