thilly thenny

Oh, gosh.  How to start.

1. I think I’m starting to talk like her [Sarah Palin], which is freaking me out and forever destroying my warm fuzzy feelings of Bobby’s World with Howie Mandell.

2. The Vice Presidential Debate at Washington Univesity in St. Louis gave the voters are great sense of both democratic and republic platforms.  Namely that Obama/Biden have concrete plans for energy, economy, education, international policies (which is one of my biggest concerns), LGBT rights and “the war on terror.”  On the contrary, McCain/Palin talk a lot of rhetoric of representing the American people, the average Joe, drilling in Alaska and “straight talk.”  Even the website doesn’t give specific details and plans, which if you look at Obama’s site, each issue is clearly spelled out with bullet points on analysis and a plan of action.

2a. During the primaries, I specifically blogged a chat with my friend stating that Hillary had a specific plan of attack and Barack didn’t.  Of course, as with many Hillary voters, I would have liked her to win.  But they’re so close on all the issues; the only major difference is in their leadership styles.

Now, Obama has a definitive plan and McCain… not so much.

3. I love Biden’s concrete examples of how to tackle the energy crisis, the specifics of economic stimulation, the U.S. relations with Iran and Afghanistan, etc.  The bar is much lower for Palin.  Thankfully, she was well-prepare, had extensive notes and smiled a whole gosh darn lot. *wink*

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I’ve listened to the pundits’ opinions (and agree that Bidden was less talkative & Palin pretty well spoken).  Here are some of my personal take-aways:

• Clarification: foreign countries do not hate us because they’re jealous of our “freedom,” great nation, economy, democracy, etc.  They dislike our hypocrisy, our foreign policies, our egos and our lack of perspective (I can’t believe how many students can’t locate foreign countries on the map, and they’re easy countries like France and Spain!).
• I loved that Palin looked at the camera when she spoke.  She was able to get a real connection with the audience.  I widh Biden did that more.  Most of the time, he was talking to Gwen Ilfill.
• But I loved that Biden was about “here’s what we want to change and here’s how to do it,” while Palin just used a bunch of canned phrases (woman, it’s not like your speech will help with SEO; stop saying “straight talk”).
• Sarah seems to keep going off topic and discussing the points that she has experience talking to: Joe six-pack, “straight talk,” bringing confidence in government back to the American people, her work with oil companies in Alaska and McCain’s war hero record (btw, yes, he’s a hero, but that doesn’t mean he has experience managing a country in times of war; being a soldier is completely different).  Biden’s comfortable talking across all issues.
• Apparently, the republicans have officially coined the word nucular.
• Although I appreciate Palin’s ability to memorize lines, she obviously isn’t well versed in Israel… or for that fact North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq or Spain.
• Favorite line (paraphrased) from Sarah Palin: It’s okay for us to have nucular weapons because we’ll use it as a deterrent, but people who don’t like us, e.g. North Korea or Iran, absolutely cannot be allowed to develop nucular weapons.  Why I love it: if the situation is reversed, how would we react to North Korea saying, “We want to keep all the countries civil, so we’re going to keep all the nuclear weapons.  We promise not to fire.  *zing!*”
• For the most part, I agree with Biden’s policies and loved how he spoke and what he said.  So most of my notes are on Palin.  Biden said one thing that irked me: any country who participates in genocide or harbors terrorists without any prosecution is forfeiting their right to be not invaded.  The first part, especially pertaining to Darfur, I don’t dispute.  But to say that the U.S. has the right to invade any country who harbors a group that disagrees with us… that’s too one sided for me, even if it is about security.

I really tried to be impartial, especially with my entries on abortion and healthcare.  However, the more I do research on each candidate’s platform, the more I lean towards Obama ‘08.  I don’t necessarily understand how an educated person can go the other way, other than tax shelters and economic protectionism.

If you’re a republican (and actually got through this entry w/o wanting to send me hate mail :-P), please explain.  Thanks!

UPDATED: If you missed the debate, you can read the entire transcript here.