Biden / Palin Debate - Senator Biden Beats Gov. Palin Handly

BIDEN SCORES BIG DEBATE WIN AGAIN PALIN

Senator and Democratic VP Candidate Joe Biden basically ate Governor and GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin alive at the "first and only" Vice Presidential Debate. I had the pleasure of watching the debate at a special event held by The Bay Area Democrats at the offices of McKinsey and Company in the Bank of America building in San Francisco.

I will share video of the impressions of viewers, but my firs take is that Palin came in with well presented canned lines that more often than not did not match the question that was asked. But the fact that the words were well-presented seemed to be enough for some people, leading me to a great concern for America's collective desire to want to think critically about anything.

Biden gave an awesome and commanding performance. His 36 years of Senate experience came to bear on the debate and he presented himself well, giving a civics and foreign policy lesson to America.

Believe me, the Malkin outrage is NOT about Ifill.

Seriously. It may be to distract people from issues again, or it may really be the soft bigotry of low expectations being heaped on the rookie Governor before her national debate debut as some have suggested. Are Malkin and her ilk just readying their excuses, or really trying to torpedo McCain by undermining Palin's confidence? One thing I know, it's not what they want us to hear:
it's NOT about Gwen Ifill.

I realize that any number of proud social conservatives have expressed reservations over Palin’s readiness and/or suitability for the position of Vice President. But it behooves us to grant Governor Palin her time in the limelight, to approach the evening with as open a mind as is possible as we focus on the issues important to the voters - the economic bailout being considered by congress, deregulation, Iraq, taxes, and health care to name a few obvious issues more important than the fact that Gwen Ifill a moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS also aspires to be author.

It’s not time to distract us by creating false controversy about the moderator. But since even McCain says it's not about Gwen Ifill:

...so why are the most visible, infamous right wing pundits so exercised on the eve of the debate? Is it as simple as an attempt to lower expectations? Is that fair to Palin and her running mate? Is that even plausible?

Will Ms. Ifill present more rigor than Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric? Probably so. The late Tim Russert might have been rugged in this sort of context. Why are the right-leaning pundits so concerned about Gwen Ifill? Why are they making this about people, not issues? And even if she is up against a more experienced, worldly debater in Senator Joe Biden, she’s been prepping for weeks; it’s show time!

Was Malkin jealous of Ifill's opportunity? We know she opposes multiculturalism, she makes that plain on her blogsite. Was she hoping Palin would face somebody less experienced as a moderator, such as David Letterman -- or Jon Stewart?

Much ado about nothing.

We arguably learn more about a candidate from a slightly adversarial interviewer (or moderator) than we would from somebody lobbing easy questions. Governor Palin is something of an unknown on the national political scene in the U.S., and the campaign has not to this point made her very available for interviews or press conferences. This is her chance to shine - and I, for one, expect her to do a creditable job in the spotlight. This is not her first debate; anyone ready to be Vice President surely has to be ready, willing, and able to handle questions from a PBS moderator in a controlled situation.

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SENATE VOTE ON BAILOUT BILL TODAY - MARKET WAITS

Today is the next critical step in the road to the passage or failure of The Bailout Bill. This is the day the Senate takes up the matter of the legislation with Senators and presidential candidates Barack Obama, John McCain, and Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden expected to attend for the voting process.

According to the Huff Post, the new version of the bill has tax reductions in it to gain more Republican support than the last version.

The vote takes place tonight.

Average Voters Don't Get It

What's upseting to me is how many people just plain don't understand the problem we face. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said it best when he observed that "Commerce could stop", and Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed that “Everything that is happening in the economic and financial sphere has started in the United States. This is a real crisis that all of us are facing," the former president told a government meeting in Moscow.

“And what is really sad is that we see an inability to take appropriate decisions. This is no longer irresponsibility on the part of some individuals, but irresponsibility of the whole system, which as you know had pretensions to (global) leadership."

What's galling is that Americans don't seem to understand how their finances are tied to Wall Street and the World Economy.

When they own the information they can bend it how they want

"Me and all my friends," says John Mayer, "We’re all misunderstood.They say we stand for nothing and there’s no way we ever could." That sort of cynicism needs debunking, as Mayer knows. There's nothing false about hope, and what the future brings us depends largely on what we dare to believe - and do - in the present.

Barack Obama inspires that hope.

Here's a new video tribute, set to Mayer's music.

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Inexperienced Sarah Palin Protected By McCain Staff - Gets Easier Debate Format

The whiners that the McCain staff is comprised of got a wish from their grossing and hand-wringing over the upcoming debate GOP Vice Presidential Candidate Gov. Sarah Palin has with Democratic VP Candidate Senator Joe Biden.

Concerned that a "free-wheeling" debate format would allow the far more experienced Joe Biden to chew the very inexperienced Palin, the McCain staffers whined for and got an easier format for her.

Sen. Joe Biden Rips Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin in Landhorne, PA

Barack Obama picked not only the most experienced person in the Senate to be his running mate, but perhaps the most passionate one as well. In this campaign stop at Landhorne, PA, Biden reminded all Americans of the problems we've faced over the last eight years of the Bush Administration: lost jobs and a lost self-esteem.