Up Against Biden,Palin Avoids Any Blunders

Even though the Republican candidate successfully passed the test of the televised debate, according to a survey carried out straight after by CNN, 51% of viewers put Obama’s running-mate on top.

Sarah Palin managed to avoid any blunders last night in the debate which saw her opposite Joe Biden. Nevertheless, she evaded numerous questions posed by the moderator of this unique debate between the two candidates for the vice presidency.

In this ‘light’ duel, which remained very polite, the governor of Alaska was often content with mechanically reciting the formulas of the Republican program, continuously stressing the lower taxes proposed by McCain as well as her own competencies in the area of energy policy.

Contrary to the interview which she gave to Katie Couric from the CBS channel last week, in which she came across as more than hesitant when the journalist persisted, she had nothing to worry about when it came to the attack of the moderator of the debate, who was not authorized to ask questions which the candidate previously shied away from. Sarah Palin risked becoming a burden for (the Republican candidate) John McCain, yet she managed, during the debate, to erase this impression. However, political analyst David Gergen believes that this does not change the dynamics of the presidential elections, which are in Obama’s favor.

A man very at ease in the debate, Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s running mate, accused John McCain of not being attuned to economic reality while presenting him as a copy of the outgoing president, George W. Bush. He recognized that the eventual adoption of a financial rescue plan of 700 billion dollars (470 billion euros) could compel a democratic administration to abandon the idea of doubling foreign aid, as Obama had promised. Palin, on her part, assured that McCain “will keep to all his promises,” despite the increase of the national debt.

According to Palin, “corruption and greed” are responsible for the financial crisis. ‘The Joe-six-packs and the hockey moms must say never again to being taken advantage of by the bosses of Wall Street ’ Palin asserted, referring to the middle class Americans who drink six cans of beer in one go and who busy themselves with everyday chores.

The Democrat’s plan to withdraw American soldiers from Iraq in 16 months, she accused, amounts to waving “the white flag of surrender.” The two candidates for the vice presidency both have a son in the American army in Iraq. “I have always been proud of my country,” Palin quipped in a sarcastic comment which indirectly referred to an unfortunate declaration by Michelle Obama who claimed to be “truly proud of her country for the first time,” when her husband won the presidential primary.

According to a survey carried out straight after the debate by CNN, 51% of viewers put Biden ahead in the debate, compared to 36% who thought it was Palin. For 84% of the people interviewed, Palin was “better” than they thought she would be. And 46% deem her “qualified to be president”, compared to 42% prior to the debate. This result varies considerably from a survey carried out by the Washington Post published the day before. It showed that the choice of the young governor on the McCain ticket had from then on, become a burden rather than an advantage.

Even in the Republican camp, 30% of those surveyed believed that Palin does not have the necessary experience to be president should anything unfortunate happen to McCain. “The Democrat running mate Joe Biden defended Obama while Sarah Palin only had herself to defend,’ noted a commentator, while recognising that despite all this, “she passed the test.”