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U.S. didn't hate Palin's performance; Utah loved her

and spounting facts that she had memorized. She was taken off-stride a couple of times when the question was out of her comfort zone but then just started talking about any issue she wanted, or had prepared for. As a high school and college debater I know that that is no one to win a debate. In fact, in a real debate format, she'd have been laughed off the stage. Cute and folksy shouldn't make us all stand up and clap.

As Gov. Palin so eloquently put it during the VP debate on Thusday: Sen. Obama wants to �waive the white flag of defeat� in Iraq. I think most Americans, right of left of the aisle, do not want that to happen. Regardless of whether or not you supported the war at its onset, not to mention the debacle it transitioned into before Gen. Petreaus got there, we are clearly winning now. The terrorists are on the run, safety is improving, and if we don�t get it right this time, we�ll probably have to go back 10 years from now to fix it anyways. It�s like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Iraq has been doing well lately and it would be crime to let the lawlessness that has reigned for the last 3 years loose once again to ravage the country and its people.

Palin is a very much needed breath of fresh air.

Talk about on the job training ,,!! Imagine Palin was the only one on the ticket .. would you vote for her as president of this country ?? Nice lady but no VP.

Obviously, the good folks in Utah prefer style over substance. Americans only have to think a little about the disastrous Presidency of George W Bush, to understand what it means to elect a smiling, know -nothing to the US leadership. Palin tries to differentiate herself from Bush by claiming to be part of "a team of mavericks"; a contradiction in terms worthy of Dubya himself.
It's true Palin presents as a pleasant enough person;
apart from her penchant for guns, killing animals
and an overt religiousity which non-americans might regard as somewhat over-cooked.
But the US has global responsibilities. Americans need to remember that they are not inviting Palin to a barbecue. She could become the leader of the democratic world, and therefore needs more than a wink and a smile to get by.

With his selection of Sarah Palin, John McCain has disqualified himself for the office of President. This is either:

a) A purely political move.

b) Extraordinarily bad judgement.

In either case, it isn't "Putting country first".

Refusing to answer questions during a debate is cheating. Ignoring questions and choosing to answer only the ones that one has rehearsed well is not really debating. It's reciting a speech one 90-second stretch at a time. It shows a lack of respect for the debate, for Joe Biden, for the moderator, and for the American public who is watching.

By not respecting the debate, she lost the debate.

Other ways she showed her lack of respect for the debate was by grinning incessantly, winking, and excessively using folksy expressions to try to "connect" with the watching public in ways that some people have deemed seductive and manipulative.

When someone resorts to these tactics, it's usually to make up for a lack of substance. She is clearly lacking in substance. When she did speak she often mistated facts (lied is the right word). For instance, she asserted Obama would cut taxes on people making less than $47,000 (not true - substitute $250,000). She said the Alaskan pipeline was up and running - not true, since that won't happen for 10 years (see CBS video).

How could anyone say she did well is way, way beyond me.

Gov Palin is what America needs this November!
Hope the rest of the US see how smart people from Idaho & Utah
Can be! Yes She Can! Yes She Can! Yes She Can!
Barricuda!

Palin can not even pronounce the g's in when she speaks. Where did she learn to speak English? Why does she think that she represents women? She does not represent a woman's right to privacy for her body and with her doctor.

Palin to us, the people, while Biden talked to Gwen Ifill. She looked the camera square in the eye from the beginning, Old Joe was slow to look into the camera, once in a while I saw his polished white teeth.

Never Again!

Iraq will play out for a long time to come and you should be careful in declaring victory just yet. It has become fertile ground for future terrorists; give it about 12 - 15 years and the kids growing up there will be full to grown and ready avenge the deaths of loved ones, etc. Then this whole cycle started with GWB will likely continue to repeat itself with guys like you standing ready to wave your flag.

Everyone is so concerned about people giving Palin a hard time. Do you honestly believe that the real world is going to handle her with kid gloves? It is quite likely that she will be eaten alive; is this a risk that we should take?

She clearly studied hard to prepare for the debate and should be given credit for that, however memorization and careful scripting cannot be a replacement for wisdom and depth of knowledge and understanding that is required for such a high office.

Yea, a breath of fresh air, sure. Well she does seem air-headed, if that is what you mean I aggree

It appalls me that we have sunk so low as a society that we actually think someone like Gov. Palin deserves to help run this government. Did we learn anything from the Bush fiasco? This was Bush in a dress on stage. Republicans need to take the rose colored glasses off their eyes and see what is actually before them. Before my mission I was a staunch conservative. Living out east, I was known as the class conservative. However, as a student of foreign policy, I find the damage that this anti-intellectual administration has caused impossible to ignore. The founders themselves would be appalled at what out public policy climate has become. Since when has being "folksy" been a requirement to running the country. Will all due respect to my friend's parents, who are also soccer and hockey moms, I would not want some "regular joe" determining the fate of my nation. Lets leave it to the people who actually have a clue and believe in reasoning their ideas out. Enter Obama/Biden....

Biden choked on tears over his wife's death that happened 30 years ago. In another moment, his fingers jabbing at ya on the screen; his hands up in the air; then put on his nasty and hard looks. We saw him dull and pale, stunned and controlled,with up and down moods like a bi-polar.

What experience, what knowledge? what was he doing in the past years sitting on that foreign policy committee and now trashing the current administration and foreign policy? Flip-flops.

At least he should own up some mistakes of foreign policy when President Bush took all the media attacks like a superman. Candidate Biden is part of a BAD government.

Biden�s talk was no substance, i don't get any answers. The childish low blow was when Biden tried to draw a close, he repeatedly mentioned McCain: he's not, he's not, as Gibson of ABC counted it was a total of 81 times in the VP debate. That�s a very ambarrassing Biden performance.

Gwen Ifill said in the Washington Week on PBS that she hoped NOT when Jeff of New York Times expressed the wish of another VP debate.

Thanks, but no thanks Sarah and John.

A breath of fresh air? Oh, yes, and a maverick, too. I just love to see the English language used so creatively.

Hey, I write from Wasilla, Alaska, my home town, and I'm voting for Barack Obama.

One would need rose colored glasses three inches thick to see Palin as the winner here. Anyone who has participated in debate knows this was a blowout. I give her props for a spot on impression of Francis McDormand in "Fargo," but that character was actually intelligent. This woman is embarrassingly shallow, and, if elected, would actually make Dan Quayle seem normal. Truly frightening to imagine her in any position of power, let alone the Vice Presidency.

Palin performed better than I expected...she had her script memorized very well, except for the few times she had to repeat her previously given answers--due, I guess, to a lack of confusion on which lines she was to say or a wink that caused her to lose her train of thought. Okay, I still feel sorry for her... as she must be extremely humiliated for her many blunders and her "nucular" disasters at grammar. Palin is a scary person to have anywhere near the White House...unless, of course, she's just there to put on her lipstick before joining her Joe 6-pack friends for a hockey game.

Of course she was better in the debate. She was reading off cards, and ignoring questions she hadn't prepared an answer to. Couric didn't let her do that.

The idea that she refused to answer Couric's questions because they were somehow unfair is daft. She thought she'd get clobbered for answering a question about what newspapers she reads (she's since said she reads the NYT, WSJ, and the Economist), so she refused to answer it? Please.

It's pretty obvious she only gives prepared answers, and if she can't do that, she sticks to one rule: say nothing specific.

Not a breath of fresh air at all. That air is getting very stale indeed.

How could Sarah Palin have won the debate when she never actually answered any of the questions????

All her cutesy little words, folksy lingo and eye winks did nothing to help the debate either.

She never explained what her and McCain's plans were for Iraq, the economy, health insurance, social security etc.

Joe Biden won this debate hands down! He was knowledgable, informative and fully explained his view on the issues and the plans that he and Obama would implement after winning the election.