The Political Voices of Women

Just in case you missed it…Here is the full video of tonight’s Presidential Debate. Did you watch the debate? What did you think? Who won? Did you learn anything new? Let me know in comments.

Here is a quick roundup of Post-Debate Reaction and Analysis of  last night’s VP Debate.  What did you think?  Let me know in comments.

[If you missed the debate, you can see it in full here.]

Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow do a post-debate analysis…

Last Night CNN had an interesting post-debate analysis…

Carl Bernstein on a post analysis of debate…

Fox News thought Sarah Palin did great. Articulate, even…

Morning Joe on MSNBC has a quick analysis of last night’s debate…

Say It Ain’t So Joe????????

What the bloggers thought…

Pamela from Pam’s Coffee Conversation found a great fact-checking video…

From Donklephant…

They started off amicably enough. “Can I call you Joe?” were Sarah Palin’s first words. Similarly, “Pleasure to be with you, to meet you,” Joe Biden began. Joe called her “Governor Palin,” while Sarah called him “Senator Biden.” They kept the tone deflected away from each other by focusing on Obama/McCain and cherry-picking points to lavish praise on one another. Biden praised Palin for her support of windfall profit taxes and her support of civil unions; Palin praised Biden for once saying he would run on the ticket with John McCain and for his support of Israel. However, it wasn’t always so friendly…

From Robert Shrum at The Huffington Post…

Sarah Palin has experience being a runner-up — which will come in handy in November. Tonight she barely kept up. In advance, the commenteriat almost unanimously agreed on a false measure of this debate. Judging by “expectation” meant that pundits could conceivably award a faux victory if she was half-coherent and modestly informed after a cram session in Arizona. But voters apply an absolute standard, not a low water mark of expectations: With America facing two wars and economic disaster, Americans ask if a candidate is up to the job.

By any rational assessment, Palin wasn’t tonight — and hasn’t been any time she’s not reading a teleprompter. President Palin– the nuclear button, recession, the health care crisis, global warming (which she doesn’t believe in, as she believes in creationism) — well, it simply doesn’t compute. A part in Fargo, yes — that office in the West Wing, no.

Everybody wondered how Palin would do. At least as important, or more, was that Joe Biden did a superb job. He deftly stopped Palin from distorting Obama’s views. He won the tax cut argument– Democrats usually don’t. He won the health care argument; Palin just gave up. She wouldn’t — couldn’t — answer the questions; she wanted to talk about energy, which she’s supposed to know something about, but she even lost on that . Often she didn’t know or couldn’t say what McCain’s policy is. And on foreign policy, she must have been staring out the window when she sat down with Henry Kissinger. She “loves” Israel but can’t discuss mideast realities in one inch depth. She can’t even articulate basic conditions for the use of nuclear weapons.

Palin relied on topline phrases and had little command of facts. Why, she even memorized the name of the President of Iran. But it was mostly blah, blah, blah. At the end, the Obama-Biden ticket is far ahead on the big issues — and Palin’s a parrot repeating memorized phrases, not a plausible vice-president. Biden called her on it every time.

From FiveThirtyEight.com

As with the Obama-McCain debate last Friday, the vast majority of the insta-polls went to the Democratic ticket. Biden won the CBS poll of undecideds 46-21, and the CNN poll of debate watchers 51-36. Independents in the large MediaCurves focus group panel went for Biden about 2:1.

The internals, however, weren’t nearly as bad for Palin as the topline results. She got a jump in preparedness in the CBS poll, and the CNN found that a large majority of voters concluded that she had beaten their expectations.

Palin’s largest problem, to my eyes, is that she was tangibly nervous for most of the debate, rushing through talking points and canned jokes alike with unsually little inflection. I doubt that this will impact her favorables much — in fact, it seems likely that her favroables will improve.

From What Tami Said…

I’ve had a crazy-making fortnight with a lot of stuff going on both at work and home, so I haven’t been posting as much. I wish I had written the post that was swirling around my head over the last week, so that this morning I could look like a wise and prescient cyberpundit. I knew that Sarah Palin would perform better than her Couric and Gibson interviews would suggest. I knew Joe Biden was unlikely to make one of his trademark gaffes. I guessed that Palin would appeal to those who like bright, shiny and pretty–packaged lines and zingers and “personal connection,” not wonkiness. I thought that Biden might look a little old and dusty next to the Republican’s “breath of fresh air” candidate, but I knew that once he demonstrated his vast knowlege of foreign policy and the economy, most viewers would remember that new ain’t better if there is no “there” there. So, last night’s debate turned out just like I thought. The veep candidates’ performances likely cemented opinions on both side. Joe Biden won, but the game remains unchanged.

Michelle Malkin thinks - “Sarah Rocks”

First, I would like to see all the Sarah doubters and detractors in the Beltway/Manhattan corridor eat their words.

Eat them.

Sarah Palin is the real deal. Five weeks on the campaign trail, thrust onto the national stage, she rocked tonight’s debate.

She was warm, fresh, funny, confident, energetic, personable, relentless, and on message. She roasted Obama’s flip-flops on the surge and tea-with-dictators declarations, dinged Biden’s bash-Bush rhetoric, challenged the blame-America defeatism of the Left, and exuded the sunny optimism that energized the base in the first place.

McCain has not done many things right. But Sarah Palin proved tonight that the VP risk he took was worth it.

Also See:

• Outside The Beltway
• Black Voices
• Women Against Sarah Palin
• Crooks and Liars
• Feministing
• Right Pundits

So.  That’s what the media and blogger reaction to the debate was.  What was your reaction?  Who won?  Who lost?  Who was just annoying?  Let me know in comments.

Our very own Pamela Lyn, from Pam’s Coffee Conversation, will be live blogging the Palin/Biden debate tonight on Twitter.  If you would like to join her, here is her twitter link…

https://twitter.com/pamelalyn

I’m not a twittering pro, but I will be following Pamela tonight.

For more information on how you can use twitter to follow tonight’s debate, check out this video.

Pamela also recommends the C-SPAN: Debate Hub for even more debate coverage, I have to agree, C-SPAN is doing a great job with their election coverage.

Also See:

Pre-Debate:  Sarah Palin

Pre-Debate:  Joe Biden

Here is an interesting video on how best to use Twitter to follow the Debate. Will you be twittering the debate?

Here is a quick video round-up, of reaction and fact-check to the Presidential Debate on Friday. Just in case you missed it, you can see the full video coverage of the debate here.  What did you think of the debate?  Let me know in comments.

Rachel Maddow responds to debate and does some fact-checking…

Fact-checking the debate on CNN…

Who Won This Debate?

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Here is a guest post from community member Marcia G. Yerman, who also blogs at The Huffington Post.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

I knew something was up when I turned on my computer and saw a number of e-mails that had similar subject titles. The two standouts were, “Please Respond and Forward” and “Women Say No to Palin.”
As I opened them, each featured the same text in the body, with different introductory clauses.
“We must do something;” ”Please sign this;” “I am outraged by McCain’s choice.”
I was beginning to get the concept.

The letter began:

“Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,
We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement
of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party.”

The note raised the issues of Palin’s stated beliefs and record, and questioned her preparedness to
“become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.” It featured a sentence that clearly
articulated, “We are not against Sarah Palin as a women or a mother,” making a point to take theconversation out of the personal realm, where much of the discourse has recently been.

It went on to say:

“First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold
our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation.”

The site, Women Against Sarah Palin, is housed at blogspot. It has a clean design and features quotes from “American feminist role models,” photos, information and activist links (including a “Register to Vote!”), in addition to the blog archive. One of the letters is from Margaret Sanger’s 30-year old great great niece.

I spoke to Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston, the originators of the letter. Both women hail from California, and are associate editors at Modern Painters magazine. They were taking their daily work break, with a walk around Chelsea, discussing the choice of Palin as Vice-President. Latimer came up with the idea that they “had to do something.” She clearly emphasized that they were “not in the habit of calling out women.” However, they did feel that they needed “to come out as women because she [Palin} doesn’t represent our interests.” Kilston said, “McCain is the one to blame,” and stressed that that she opposed Palin on the basis of “her lack of experience and her positions.”

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Here is a guest post from community member Marcella Peralta Simon - Are Democrats Getting What They Deserve?

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a lifelong Democrat, having licked stamps for Johnson in 1964 as a tot, voting the first time for Jimmy Carter in 1976.

I watched the Hillary-Obama contest from the distant vantage point of Australia. I became increasingly disturbed by the dismissive, angry comments attacking Hillary and the Clintons by the press and bloggers. Equally disturbing was the near worship of Obama as a kind of political messiah. Nothing is scarier than someone with a messianic complex and I became worried. (I am just as scared by a “maverick” who takes risks and is hated by his own party).

Hillary has plenty of baggage but she also has substance and experience. But Democratic voters chose style over substance, the rock star over the school marm. In a culture obsessed by celebrity, this is not surprising.

As I came to understand Obama, I began to appreciate and admire him as a savvy, smart politician, much in the same vein as Bill Clinton. I feel comfortable with a good politician to solve problems that require policy interventions as one would want a good plumber to fix leaky pipes, not tear them up and leave the mess for the next generation to clean up.

However, now you see a new rock star, Sarah Palin, also light on resume and heavy on charisma brought in to counteract Obama. They both are inspirational speakers, come from relatively humble beginnings, and rose up through the ranks of local politics. Granted, Obama is better educated and more worldly, but when did America care so much about that?

The Republicans brought Sarah Palin in very cynically because they knew that people who have been put on pedestals can fall off with a slight nudge. And the Democrats by nominating Obama have left themselves wide open for such a tactic.

Here is a guest post from community member Kimber Caldwell, from The Politics of Joy.

 [If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

Not too many days ago, Cynthia and I were discussing Sarah Palin’s right to choose HOW she gave birth to Trigg.

#1… She chose to complete a pregnancy that was probably considered high risk, considering her age, the discovery of Down’s Syndrome in the baby and the fact that this was at least her 5th pregnancy. I have 5 children, but have had 6 pregnancies, one that ended in a miscarriage at 12 weeks. I don’t know many women who haven’t miscarried who have this number of children. It is not unusual.

#2… She chose to travel, despite how far along she was. When her water broke in Texas, she made the choice to fly home and then subsequently drive 50 miles to her chosen hospital or birthing center. Now, I’m not sure about you, but I remember the times when my water broke… As Cynthia pointed out, she would have had to have SEVERAL changes of clothes and a box of chux pads. Not to mention that labor usually intensifies after the water breaks, so I am sure she had the complete attention of the flight crew. But this was HER choice.

At first, I was a little appalled about some of her choices. But then I recalled the choices I made in my pregnancies.

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Our very own PunditMom was on Fox and Friends yesterday morning. We finally have a clip, and she did a great job.

Pundit Mom On Fox Talking About Oprah/Palin Controversy…

Way to go Joanne!

The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout…The good, the bad, and the ugly.  How does this bailout affect YOU.  You, the taxpayer.  You, the homeowner.  You, the investor.  How does this bailout affect our economy as a whole?  What about the world economy?  Here is some of what others are saying, I hope you’ll let me know what you think in comments.

Feds Bailout Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. How does it affect the average home owner?

From Daily Kos…

Yesterday Henry Paulson, United States Treasury Secretary, held a press conference at 11:00am EDT on a Sunday morning to tell us, the tax payers, we’re going to take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and their $5.4 trillion worth of home debt - half the mortgage debt in the country. This was a well choreographed press conference, at 11:00am EDT Sunday morning  when a large portion of the Eastern and Central U.S. were either in church or on their way to church and the folks out on the west Coast were still in bed or just getting up. In the meanwhile Republican Gov. Charlie Crist was holding a press conference at the very same time about hurricane Ike, what a coincidence.

Our government is potentially putting us $5.4 trillion in debt and they hold a press conference at 11:00 am EDT on a Sunday?

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