vice presidential debate

Watch the full debate if you missed it:

Full transcript here.

I don't know why people think these debates are boring (cough cough Lauren! hehe), this one was so entertaining. Especially when Palin says things like "Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again...Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future." or "Darn right it was the predator lenders." It's so fun to see a "regular" American go up against this veteran Senator and hold her own.

I don't think Palin won though. I think she won in the sense that she really put herself out there. This is the real Palin, real straight talk to the American people. No editing, no gotcha questions. I think she won over a good part of America's heartland last night. But Biden was also really good. He had a lot more substance going on (but that's not necessarily in his favor. Check out his 14 lies from last night here). I think he won at saying what America wants to hear right now...a lot of people want the war to be over, want the economy fixed. Hey I'm all for that too! But I don't agree with the way Biden & Obama want to fix those problems. I want victory in war. I want less government intervention in the economy and in my paycheck. But I feel like a lot of Americans today are just tired, or lazy, or want the government just to do everything. We forget that freedom & prosperity come at a price, and the government is not the answer to all our problems.

These are some of my favorite Palin quotes:
"In fact, too often you're the problem so, government, lessen the tax burden and on our families and get out of the way and let the private sector and our families grow and thrive and prosper. An increased tax formula that Barack Obama is proposing in addition to nearly a trillion dollars in new spending that he's proposing is the backwards way of trying to grow our economy."

"Unless you're pleased with the way the federal government has been running anything lately, I don't think that it's going to be real pleasing for Americans to consider health care being taken over by the feds."

And as usual, we were at the Fulton GOP HQ to watch. We got there around 8:15 and all the seats were already taken! Crazy crowded! There's a breakfast & volunteer activities on Sat...anyone in?

Check out this awesome cookie cake & cookies:


Special guest GA GOP Chairman Sue Everhart was there talking before the debate:

getting ready for the next debate

So the VP debate is tomorrow, check out Palin preparing in Arizona (from the Fox Embeds Blog):

I heard Laura Ingraham this AM thinking that this might not be good for Palin, because this setting is nothing like what she will be in tomorrow night. But I think she should do whatever helps her study the best! I could never study in quiet during college...give me headphones and my favorite music, and I can really get my study on. Studying outside or in front of big windows also helped me. So maybe being outdoors in a calm environment is what helps Palin clear her head and then cram as much info into it. We all have our pre-test rituals, right?

In other VP debate news, the moderator for the night is Gwen Ifill, and she is releasing a pro-Obama book next year. Do you think this will impact her objectivity during the debate? Something to think about.

And, Palin is giving talk radio interviews while out in Arizona, the first of which happened Monday on the Hugh Hewitt show. Read the transcript and/or listen here.

I thought she did really, really well. I don't know why she struggles so much with the mainstream media interviews. Below are some of my favorite parts:

Hewitt asks if Palin follows the attacks on her...
"Americans today who are worried about losing their home and figuring out how in the world they’re going to pay their fuel bill next month, and send their kid to college, and may be worried about losing a loved one that they’re sending off to a war zone to protect our rights. Those are the shots that Americans are taking, so all this political nonsense and the lies, the rhetoric that is spun out there about someone just trying to offer themselves up in the name of service to this great country, I’ll take it."

On the financial crisis...
"I know what Americans are going through. Todd and I—heck, we’re going through that right now even as we speak, which may put me again kind of on the outs of those Washington elite who don’t like the idea of just an everyday working class American running for such an office. But yes, there’s been a lot of times that Todd and I have had to figure out how we were going to pay for health insurance...We understand what the problems are. It’s why I have all the faith in the world that John McCain is the right top of any ticket at this point to get us through these challenges. It’s a good balanced ticket where he’s got the experience, and he’s got the bipartisan approach that it’s going to take to get us through these challenges. And I have the acknowledgement and the experience of going through what America is going through."

On her religion and the "mocking" of it...
"And you know, so be it, though I do have respect for those who have differing views than I do on faith, on religion. I’m not going to mock them, and I would hope that they would kind of I guess give me the same courtesy through this of not mocking a person’s faith, but maybe perhaps even trying to understand a little bit of it."

best surprise yet

This has been a really fun, unpredictable election year, and McCain's pick of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is the best surprise yet. Funny because I first read up on her last month and became a fan, and was alerted by a reader back in May of the liberal fear of her being added to the Republican ticket. Here is a great article in the NY Times about the process.

I still haven't watched Obama's acceptance speech. From what I've heard, it wasn't anything we haven't already heard from Obama. He's a good speaker. He likes to talk change. He likes to put himself in front of a temple - what's up with that? But what I really like about his speech is that instead of everyone talking about it the next morning, everyone was talking about...you guessed it. Sarah Palin. McCain stole your thunder Obama. I wonder how mad Obama was about that.

I think Palin is an awesome choice, for a couple of reasons. It's unexpected, but she is a solid leader. Exactly the breath of fresh air McCain needed in his campaign, and what we need in Washington. Who better to take on the bureaucracy than someone who fearlessly stood up to corruption in her own political party? And so what if she was mayor of a small town and governor of a far away state? I think the farther she is from Washington politics, the better. She is a true outsider. And she has real executive experience, something Obama, Biden, and McCain don't have. And while she may not have much foreign relations experience, McCain does, so I think that balances out, and she can learn a lot in the months to come from him and his advisers.

If you want change, then you want someone like Palin. Not Obama, not Biden. What real change has Obama brought to this country in his years in the Senate? What real change has Biden brought in his many many years in the Senate? Here we have a woman who hasn't even finished her first term as Governor and has brought IMMENSE change to her state.

The one thing that makes me really angry already...I was at a party on Friday and overheard a woman co-worker say to another co-worker "I don't think she can be a mother and the Vice President." Is that not the most sexist thing? I don't know if this co-worker is a Republican or Democrat, but either way, that mindset is really disappointing. Why can't women be wives & mothers AND follow whatever dream/career path they want? Women have come such a long way, and to dismiss Sarah Palin on this ludicrous idea that you can't be a mother and VP of the US is a slap in the face to all American women. I really admire Palin for what she has been able to accomplish: good wife, good mother, good leader. What a shining example she is to American women everywhere, regardless of your political affiliation.