Biden-Palin Debate: Both Parties State That They Won

Iraq, the economic and energy questions dominated the face-off between the two candidates. The Republican and Democratic parties both rapidly claimed victory, Thursday evening, at the end of the only televised debate between the candidates for the Vice Presidency of the United States, the Republican Sarah Palin and the Democrat Joe Biden.

“Joe Biden had a clear victory tonight because he passionately defended change, faced with an economic and a disastrous foreign policy these last eight years that Sarah Palin defended,” affirmed Obama’s campaign director David Plouffe. “Tonight, Americans saw why Barack Obama chose Joe Biden, a statesman, who clearly has the experience and the knowledge to be a great vice president.”

The senator of New York Hillary Clinton paid homage to Senator Joe Biden believing that “Americans tonight saw a strong passionate and experienced leader. Once again we have seen that Senator McCain and Sarah Palin have nothing else to offer than the same erroneous policies as that of the Bush administration. The families of the workers of the middle class deserve better,” concluded Mrs. Clinton.

The Republican party affirmed for its party that Sarah Palin, 44, had “carried this debate” faced with her Democratic adversary, 65, calling her “direct, determined, and a breath of fresh air.” “Americans saw a clear contrast in style and in vision. They saw Joe Biden, Washington insider and senator for 36 years, and governor Palin, an outsider in Washington and a reformer outside of the system” affirmed the director of communication for the Republican candidate John McCain, Jill Hazelbaker, in a press release.

According to the polls of CNN and CBS, Biden came out as the winner of the debate, but, as CNN noted, 84 percent of television viewers believed that Mrs. Palin did better than expected. The economy, energy questions, the climate change, Iraq and the situation in the Middle East dominated this debate.

Palin, all smiles, tried to create a corner between Biden and Barack Obama recalling that the Deleware senator stated in the past that the Illinois senator was not ready to become commander in chief. “And I know that you are opposed to his attempt to vote to cut credits to our soldiers [in Iraq] and I am thankful for this,” said Palin.

Without losing his calm, Biden responded that John McCain had also voted to cut funds to soldiers and affirmed that the Republican candidate was “fundamentally wrong” in defending from the beginning the Iraq war. Challenging her affiliation with Bush that she never cited, Palin accused her opponent of looking too much towards the past as opposed to the future. During her interventions, the Alaska governor chose to express herself using familiar English. She systematically called Biden by his first name and the Delaware senator spoke of John when he spoke of McCain.

Palin sometimes seemed not to understand the questions. In fact, when the journalist asked what her “Achilles heel” was Palin spoke … of her experience as a state that it s producer of oil. On several occasions Palin spoke of energy and of Alaska even when this had nothing to do with the question that she had been asked. On a question on Darfur, she first spoke of Iraq.

When a question came up on the role of the vice president, Biden judged that Dick Chaney “was one of the most dangerous presidents in the history of the United States” and he challenged the powers that Chaney took upon himself. Palin strangely evoked an eventual change of the Constitution, without more explanation.

On the level of minor faults, Palin called the commander of American forces in Afghanistan “McClellan” instead of David McKiernan. Biden didn’t point out this error.