She's Back

The Sarah Palin that so many people fell in love with after the Republican National Convention was back on display last night at the Vice Presidential debate. She was clear, articulate, genuine, and a little bit feisty (she could have been more feisty in my opinion).

She said a lot of good things, but missed a couple opportunities to really ding Joe Biden and Barack Obama. For example, at one point Biden said Obama was going to "end the war". Palin did well by saying that Obama's plan was a white flag of surrender, but it would have been great if she had said something like: "There is the fundamental difference between Obama and McCain - Obama wants to end the war at any cost. McCain will WIN the war. Obama has never once displayed a desire to win the war."

In addition, I would have preferred her to defend McCain (and Republicans in general) on the myth that Obama has been spreading ad nauseum lately: deregulation caused the financial crisis. The current problem started with overregulation of mortgage companies - requiring them to give loans to people that couldn't really afford them. That is what caused the current financial crisis - not some vague deregulation. And McCain did call for more regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2005, which Senate Democrats blocked. We need McCain and Palin to start hammering this point. Deregulation isn't bad and not all regulation is helpful.

Otherwise, Palin was masterful. Twisting the knife by "respecting" Biden for speaking out against Obama on the war, among other things.

Unfortunately for McCain, Biden generally did well too. He largely ignored Palin and went right after McCain. He stuck to his talking points and didn't have a single gaffe.

All in all, Palin did enough to restore confidence in her candidacy. She won the debate, but it wasn't a complete trashing. McCain might get a little boost in the polls, but it is not going to be enough to stem the tide of voters flowing to Obama right now. Only when the discussion moves on from the financial crisis and the bailout will McCain have a chance of getting back in this race.

Palin was great, but she alone isn't going to be able to save McCain's campaign - he is going to have to do that himself, which is something he has been completely unable to do so far.