Did you notice how Sarah Palin immediately recognized this colossal gaffe, pounced on it, questioned Biden about it and showed the world her brilliant mastery of geopolitical facts?

Me neither.

factoid on October 3, 2008 at 1:46 PM

I don’t think that would be a reasonable expectation. Biden threw out way too many dubious claims. If Palin had challenged every one of them, she would have spent all her time arguing unproductively with Biden rather than making her own points. It would have come across as shrill.

Instead, she said at one point that there would be comments after the debate on how accurate his statements were, and she moved on.

I will say, though, that I would love to hear each fabrication challenged. One of the most irritating things about liberals and the MSM — but I repeat myself — is the way they turn untruths into things that “everyone knows.”

right2bright on October 3, 2008 at 3:42 PM

Janos Hunyadi on October 3, 2008 at 4:19 PM

Wow, I make one comment about something Palin should have jumped on and I’m labeled a troll. You guys sound like whiny ass liberals.

Could he possibly have been referring to Israel’s scandalously unsuccessful one week skirmish in southern Lebanon? If so, then how does he conflate that to “the U.S. and France”? How did he twist his fevered imagination into believing that anyone kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, or any part of it?

This is the problem with a MSM where over 95% of the members are partisan Democrats; there isn’t anyone outside of the blogosphere to call him on this crap when he makes it up, and he makes it up all the time.

cornfedbubba
kongzilla

I hate the smell of AstroTurf in the afternoon……….

“beefytee”, you write like a girl

“kongzilla”, I haven’t read every post for the past 2 1/2 years and don’t remember everything I’ve read, but I never heard of you. I don’t know who or what you are, and don’t care, but your comments on the debate have a bad smell

Did you notice how Sarah Palin immediately recognized this colossal gaffe, pounced on it, questioned Biden about it and showed the world her brilliant mastery of geopolitical facts?

Me neither.

factoid on October 3, 2008 at 1:46 PM

Somethings are so outlandishly fabricated that there is no way to respond.
“I broke the world record in the 100 m this morning.” Complete fabrication, but how would you respond to that in a debate where you can’t demand that I prove it?

Get over yourselves!

kongzilla on October 3, 2008 at 2:31 PM

You post like one, you get labeled as one.

If she had jumped on just this one gaffe, she would have seriously dented his foreign policy cred. I was so frustrated when she didn’t.

You pull out one instance of what you consider a “gaffe” and become so disappointed.
Meanwhile, she missed the opportunity to make sure all of her talking points are covered.
They go over, by priority, specific things they want in that 90 minutes. They are taught not to engage in something that may take too much time to explain. Better to give up a small nugget, if you can present a rock later on.
Many times a “gaffe” is a trap, the debaters know that. That is why they try to stay away from cliches, and direct attacks about something that is well known. Biden was waiting for her to use the words “maverick”, if to do over they would have not had her use those words and force Biden to make some leap of word faith. He had his list for when she had stated maverick a couple of times.
Benson did that to Quayle, Quayle had likened himself (age wise) to JFK. Benson baited him with the age issue, Quayle said he was older then JFK and out popped the famous line “I knew JFK, and your no…”
Many times a debater will let an issue go because they are told to. It is what you don’t say, rather then what you say, that wins most debates.

Unbelievably awful gaffe. Not ticky-tack. Not “arguably wrong.” Flat out, ludicrously wrong, with no way on earth to rescue it by postulating “Oh, I meant x.” But remember: Sarah Palin was “loose with the facts” and showed only “a superficial……

Some people assumed that Biden meant that the US and France kicked Syria out of Lebanon, but Michael Totten — who has spent considerable time in Lebanon — doesn’t buy that explanation, either:

And did Biden and Senator Barack Obama really say NATO troops should be sent into Lebanon? When did they say that? Why would they say that? They certainly didn’t say it because NATO needed to prevent Hezbollah from returning–since Hezbollah never went anywhere.
I tried to chalk this one up as just the latest of Biden’s colorful gaffes. Did he mean to say “we kicked Syria out of Lebanon?” But that wouldn’t make any more sense. First of all, the Lebanese kicked Syria out of Lebanon. Not the United States, and not France. But he clearly meant to say Hezbollah, not Syria, because he correctly notes just a few sentences later that Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s government. He wasn’t talking about Syria. He was talking about Hezbollah all the way through, at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of his outlandish assertion.

cornfedbubba
kongzilla

We’re getting astroturfed!
Seriously, where’d these guys come from all the sudden.

silverfox on October 3, 2008 at 2:06 PM

add manly rash to that as well. you know, the one who keeps calling for a civil war? and people keep agreeing with it? yeah, makes hotair look like a really rational place

Healing you WILL feel!

CNN had a running ticker on the bottom during the debates tracking people’s instant reaction to what was being said. Biden was saying lies and making up things, but the meter at the bottom of the page was showing positives for Biden.

I bet over half the audience watching the Biden/Palin debate were watching in the hopes something stupid would happen (Palin burst into tears or Biden make a sexual remark about Palin’s figure).
This debate will not hurt McCain, but it will help very little. McCain has made a fatel error; he used Palin to little and too late.

With a debate between Obama and McCain most people are just looking at the difference in appearance, how smoothly they talk and present themselves. What they say means nothing. Everyone either knows their positions or does not care. Unfortunately, McCain being older and with physical peculiarities does not win in the looks “cooler” department.

I would like to see a debate between Palin and Obama.
Bet Palin would win.