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Reactionary Reactions to the Veep Debate

The perky weathergirl was more appealing than the gray politico, at least for the first thirty minutes. Palin has better presentation and delivery, but she didn’t exactly dazzle with her command of facts. She’s evidently never read the Constitution if she believes, as Dick Cheney does, that the vice president is part of the legislative […]

The perky weathergirl was more appealing than the gray politico, at least for the first thirty minutes. Palin has better presentation and delivery, but she didn’t exactly dazzle with her command of facts. She’s evidently never read the Constitution if she believes, as Dick Cheney does, that the vice president is part of the legislative branch.

Although I thought she did a better job connecting with viewers while the debate was going on, when the candidates’ comments were afterwards chopped up into clips and soundbites, Biden’s strengths became apparent. You can take any slice of Biden’s performance and broadcast it by itself — it’ll make sense and make a point. Palin … not so much.

My favorite line of the night was Biden saying that he spends a lot of time in Home Depot. What on earth is he doing there? No one has ever suspected him of being Larry Craig, but even so, a U.S. senator is not the kind of person any store manager wants to have hanging around. Those “no loitering” signs are there for a reason.

Biden’s constant attacks on ExxonMobil by name were also curious. Is he upset about “Masterpiece Theatre”?

Palin, meanwhile, outdid the Democrat for class warfare, with all her bogus talk about being middle class. (Her husband earned $93,000 last year, more than twice the national median household income, while Palin receives a $125,000 salary as governor. That’s good money where I come from.) It’s always galling to hear a member of the political class — the tax-eaters — pretend to solidarity with the rest of us, the taxpayers.

She can’t beat Biden for interventionism, though: there’s no place in the world he won’t send U.S. troops, starting with Darfur. But at least his principal is for is for getting us out of Iraq in something less than a century.

Addendum: The Washington Times highlights Biden’s lack of familiarity with the Constitution as well. I missed his Article I/Article II gaffe.  He was making trouble for himself with his mistaken explanation of the VP’s role in the Senate, which is not germane to the point against Cheney: the VP is part of the executive branch, as defined in Article II of the Constitution.

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