Single Issue Politics.

Just a quick note after seeing the vice Presidential Debate last night. I've always liked Biden, and during the primaries I thought he had the 'presidential' knowledge and charisma that has been missing in American politics for a long time. Watching him carry himself in such a gentlemanly and cool manner just reminds me why I think he would have been a great President. But in the VP spot he definitely is an asset. His knowledge, common sense, and desire to stand up for issues that were not politically popular at the time make him much more of a maverick than McCain ever was. So there is some irony in McCain and Palin using the "Maverick" line about themselves so consistently. The description could easily apply to Obama and Biden. Biden was fluent and suave throughout the debate and restrained himself with a heavy breath at the frustrating fakeness of his opponent.

Palin on the other hand simply memorized her lines for the debate. She hurriedly twisted her answers back towards the subjects she had crammed on for the past week and rattled off lists of topics and made broad ideological generalizations rather than being specific. This not only created a very forced delivery through a never disappearing 'Joker' smile, but also demonstrated that if she had to assume the role of president we would be stuck with someone who knew less about the issues than even George Bush.

When given a choice between a VP who understands the issues and a VP who has memorized them, it should not be a difficult decision, however a few throw away 'hockey mom' lines and I could just imagine right leaning viewers nodding thier heads with a deaf ear towards the lack of substance to her answers and her personality. I find her to be extremely superficial, uninformed, and unqualified for the position of Vice President. Maybe a Parent Teacher's association or Board of Trustees however.

In my opinion, she was chosen by McCain's strategists because of the superficial value of having a woman on the ticket as a counter to Obama. This lame attempt however, is likely to have the desired affect on a large portion of the American public who do not seem to vote on the issues, but rather the personality, and or a SINGLE issue. I remember when I heard several people make the Kerry vs Bush election an issue of which First Lady suited the Whitehouse better, or simply which candidate was more attractive. Not to forget the 'swiftboat' BS which struck a mortal blow to Kerry's campaign. This sort of insanity lead to Bush winning a second term. Something that had seemed unthinkable.

Surely the single issue politics of this election should be the economy. Therefore the debaters should have turned any question back into an issue of the economy, and yet they did not. Biden could have hit back against Palin's naive and old fashioned anti-environment 'drill baby drill', by saying "gee whiz, gas prices sure burn a hole in the pocket don't they folks?"

By talking about how expensive gas has become, along with the harm it does to our environment, Biden could have segued into the opportunities that heavy investment in new energy technology would create for employment, the export of new technology, not to forgetting the positive impact on the environment. The best come back against Palin's "drill baby drill" is sure to remind everyone how expensive it is at the pump and that the Obama-Biden ticekt would like to free us of dependence on oil altogether. Talking about the gas price pains, as well as the Wall Street and Main Street blues would have won bigger emotional responses from the public.

Fortunately for Biden, Palin's attacks lacked follow throughs so he escaped unscathed. Neither side really managed to deal a significant blow and this is largely due to Biden's holding back in an effort to avoid being painted as a bully or sexist by the Republicans and the media.