Readers have given me a shellacking tonight. But you calmed down as I did as the debate went on. Look: I owe it to you just to tell you what I'm thinking moment to moment. I don't spin this, I do my best to call it as I see it. A reader writes:
The closing statements are about to wrap. I have been watching your comments and have reached the same conclusion. Palin caught Biden off guard by coming off as a pretty competent debater (facts aside). Once Biden realized that he was facing a real opponent and became less afraid to fight back, he cleaned her clock. They sent Biden in with a muzzle. Thank goodness he was smart enough to know when to take it off.
Another:
You're fretting too much. Biden is coming across much more consistant and reasonable - Palin is sounding frantic and frenetic, piling on talking points and insisting on changing to her agenda to a far greater degree than Biden.
Another:
Andrew, I love you, but what really shifted over the course of this debate wasn't Biden's performance; it was your appreciation of what Biden was doing. He was not thrown off at the beginning, as you were; he clearly had his game plan, and he executed it. The debate was not tortoise v. hare; it was strategy and competence v. silly bullshit.
Another:
She didn't poop her pants. So basically she did great!
Another:
My wife is a conservative southern voter, born and raised in New Orleans; she even supported David Duke for governor (before we met and married). She saw clips of Palin’s Convention speech, and heard about, but did not see, the Couric interview. At first, as Biden was stumbling, she was lambasting them both, and then as the debate wore on and Palin ran out of new talking points, she turned to me and she said “and John McCain thinks she is qualified to be VP let alone President?”
After that she started mocking her responses. With her prejudices, she can’t bring herself to vote for Obama, or at least admit that she would, but she definitely won’t be voting for McCain.