Palin and Biden on gay marriage
Citizen Crain — ... the same constitutional benefits" as straight couples. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, promises that gays won't be stripped of hospital visitation and the right to contract if John McCain is president. Gee thanks. And through all her protestations of tolerance, she says she doesn't want to go "round and round" about what exact rights and recognition same-sex couples deserve. I wonder how her "dear friends" who are gay feel about her unwillingness to take that time. Here's the transcript from the New York Times on the back and forth in the vice presidential debate on legal ...

Debates on 'Clean Coal' and Caps
The Caucus — ... . Tonight she said, “I do, I do.” But the real question isn’t about a cap, but how either climate policy would actually ratchet down emissions and raise costs for business as usual. Below you can see the transcript of the section on climate. (Here’s the full transcript .) Amid the shorthand and fuzzy language, what do you see that’s significant? Ms. Ifill: Governor, I’m happy to talk to you in this next section about energy issues. Let’s talk about climate change. What is true and what is false about what we have heard, read, discussed, debated about the causes of climate ...

What McKiernan Really Said
TPM Election Central — ... Palin asserted that one thing distinguishing John McCain's proposed policy in Afghanistan from President Bush's was that McCain thinks that "the surge principles that have worked in Iraq need to be implemented in Afghanistan, also." ...

Biden Palin Vice Presidential Debate: Two Survivors
The Moderate Voice — ... The third one is most likely what happened tonight. If Biden or Palin is judged to have won, it probably won’t be a massive game changer. A major polling shift will most likely have to come due to some other event or campaign issue. Here’s a transcript of the debate. ...

Biden Doesn't Know the Difference Between Gaza and the West Bank
Little Green Footballs — ... The full debate transcript is here: Vice-Presidential Debate - Biden and Palin - Transcript. ...

uggabugga — Sarah "no facts" Palin: Look at these two statements made (in sequence) during the foreign policy portion of the Vice-Presidential debate. (facts in emphasis) BIDEN: Gwen, no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden. I would have never, ever joined this ticket were I not absolutely sure Barack Obama shared my passion. But you asked a question about whether or not this administration's policy had made sense or something to that effect. It has been an abject failure, this ...

Senator Obama voted to Defund Victory
Flopping Aces — Last night’s debate: PALIN: I know that the other ticket opposed this surge, in fact, even opposed funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama voted against funding troops there after promising that he would not do so. And Senator Biden, I respected you when you called him out on that. You said that his vote was political and you said it would cost lives. And Barack Obama at first said he would not do that. He turned around under political pressure and he voted against funding the troops. We do have a plan for ...

The "debate" on the Middle East
Left I on the News — Of course every noticed how in last night's debate there was a rush to the alter to see who could blow the "I love Israel" shofar the loudest. But there was actually more to it than that. Palin called for building the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, a statement which went completely unremarked on. But it was Biden's statements that were really telling (or would be, if you didn't already know). First this: ...

Make Military and Veterans' Issues a Priority
TPMCafe — ... ? Even Senator Biden and Governor Palin, who will both have sons deployed by Election Day, failed to address these issues in last night's debate. ...

Sarah Palin isn't ready to play by the adult rules
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash — ... in Sedona, Arizona must have been spent on pounding home a few talking points. So her "knowledge" was longer than it has been, but still 2 mm thick (25 mm equals an inch). No one on stage seemed interested in knocking Palin off her talking points. Sen. Joe Biden stuck to attacking John McCain and left her alone. And moderator Gwen Ifill didn't insist on a follow-up of any kind, and didn't want to ask a question that might throw off Palin for her script. Not that Palin would have answered a question if she didn't want to : "And I may not answer the questions that either the ...

Visualizing the Vice-Presidential Debate
The Monkey Cage — Via the transcript and Wordle.

Palin on Nuclear Weapons
democracyarsenal.org — ... , nonproliferation expert and senior fellow at CSIS, told Democracy Arsenal, “The next VP must know how to handle the most awesome responsibility at the White House’s command – the American nuclear arsenal.  Unfortunately, Governor Palin has no experience on global security issues and showed no expertise on the content or purpose of American nuclear weapons.” In last night’s vice presidential debate Sarah Palin demonstrated this lack of expertise. ...

Biden's Home Runs
Politics Daily — ... Although last night's Vice Presidential Debate was a fairly flat affair, with both candidates sticking pretty close to their respective talking points, there were a few really good moments. ...

The Palin/McCain Job Plan Cuts Corporate Taxes And Doesn’t Create Jobs
Wonk Room — ... During the Vice-Presidential debate last night, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) spent ample time claiming that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) economic plan will create new jobs and cause the economy to grow: ...

The Missing $7,000
Ross Douthat — Here's Joe Biden last night on the McCain health care plan: ... do you know how John McCain pays for his $5,000 tax credit you're going to get, a family will get? He taxes as income every one of you out there, every one of you listening who has a health care plan through your employer. That's how he raises $3.6 trillion, on your -- taxing your health care benefit to give you a $5,000 plan, which his Web site points out will go straight to the insurance company. And then you're going to have to replace a $12,000 -- that's the average cost of the plan you get ...

Palin Claims McCain’s Health Care Plan Is ‘Budget Neutral,’ Which Means A $1 Trillion Middle-Class Tax Hike
Wonk Room — There is a contradiction in the way John McCain has been selling his health care plan: either it busts the budget, or it raises taxes on middle-class families. It has to do one or the other. Lately, John McCain’s campaign has been going around saying he won’t raise taxes on middle class families. But last night Governor Palin twice insisted that John McCain’s health care plan is ‘budget neutral’ too: He’s proposing a $5,000 tax credit for families so that they can get out there and they can ...

Palin, On Democracy
Seeing the Forest — ... Here is something Sarah Palin said during last night's debate. As you read this, substitute the words, "decision-making by We, the People" or "democracy" for the word "government." Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you're not always the solution. 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. Palin says that decision-making by We, the People is not always the solution. Palin wants We, the People and democracy to "get out of ...

The Friday Political Thread: You Betcha
Hit & Run — ... I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. And it is my executive experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as V.P. with McCain, not only as a governor, but earlier on as a mayor, as an oil and gas regulator, as a business owner. It is those years of experience on an executive level that will be put to good use in the White House also." - Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate, ostensibly talking about the powers of ...

The Post Where I Give the McCain Campaign a Few Thousand Dollars Worth of Free Advice and Save their Butts from a Landslide
The Sundries Shack — ... but may well put him in the Oval Office in January. He needs to go on the attack. Now, James Pethokoukis says that’s the one thing he won’t do, but there’s a way he can do it simply and easily without seeming to be an ogre. This line also has the benefit of letting him still be the Wall Street-bashing maverick he so loves to be as well. And the cool thing about it is that his running mate set him up for the attack last night. Here’s what Sarah Palin said last night: IFILL: …Now, ...

MSM Missing Biden’s Mistakes & Lies….Shocked?
Flopping Aces — Read through this fact checking article at the AP where five writers….count them….FIVE….fact checked the VP debate and they missed this: Here’s what the president said when we said no. He insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, “Big mistake. Hamas will win. You’ll legitimize them.” What happened? Hamas won. West Bank? Try Gaza Joe…..there ya go again Joe. Lets say that is what he meant to say…cough bulls%^t….but lets just say that. ...

Which Restaurant Was That Joe?
Flopping Aces — The man is just a liar: BIDEN: Can I respond? Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie’s Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years. And then ask them whether there’s a single major initiative that John McCain differs with the president on. On taxes, on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on the whole question of how to help ...

Palin Claims McCain’s Health Care Plan Is ‘Budget Neutral,’ Which Means It’s A Middle-Class Tax Hike
Wonk Room — There is a contradiction in the way John McCain has been selling his health care plan: either it busts the budget, or it raises taxes on middle-class families. It has to do one or the other. Lately, John McCain’s campaign has been going around saying he won’t raise taxes on middle class families. But last night Governor Palin twice insisted that John McCain’s health care plan is ‘budget neutral’ too: He’s proposing a $5,000 tax credit for families so that they can get out there and they can ...

VP DEBATE: Did they answer the questions?
THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS — ... There's been a lot of discussion about whether Sarah Palin answered the questions in the VP Debate.  I was curious and so examined the debate transcript to see whether both candidates answered all the questions. ...

Back to the Veep Debate: Biden and Hezbollah
PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts — ... One of the responses from the debate that I have been to go back to is the following from Biden. I was confused by it at the time, and wanted to see the transcript. ...

Gwen Ifill's VP Debate Bias
American Thinker — ... For example, in the early stages of the Afghanistan War, the late Peter Jennings asked Pervez Musharraf, then President of Pakistan, if the United States in Afghanistan was "bombing too much or too little." It was a classic forced-choice question designed to create one of two headlines: "Musharraf Criticizes American for Bombing Too Much," or "...Too Little." Mr. Jennings intended to create controversy because controversy sells. Musharraf wisely dodged the question. During the VP debate , Ifill used forced-choice questions to further her biases. Here's one: "As America ...

McCain Slings Right Wing Fairy Tales About Taxes
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash — ... " scare tactic. Palin repeated the lie that millions of small business owners will see their taxes go up under Obama.  But, as Biden so deftly reminded us, 95 percent of small business owners earn less than $250,000 a year, and would therefore get a tax break under Obama's plan. Not only that, but some would argue the biggest "killer" of jobs is healthcare costs. Just ...

FLASHBACK: In 2000, McCain Said U.S. Troops Were ‘Killing Innocent Civilians’ And ‘Dropping Bombs’
Think Progress — ... to criticize Obama. For example, during the recent vice presidential debate, Palin claimed, “Obama has said that all we’re doing in Afghanistan is ‘air raiding villages’ and ‘killing civilians.’” She called said his comment was “reckless” and “hurts our cause.” Similarly, the McCain campaign released an ad this week branding Obama’s remarks “dishonorable.” Watch it: ...

FLASHBACK: In 2000, McCain Said U.S. Troops Were ?Killing Innocent Civilians? And ?Dropping Bombs?
The Hollywood Liberal — ... to criticize Obama. For example, during the recent vice presidential debate , Palin claimed, “Obama has said that all we’re doing in Afghanistan is ‘air raiding villages’ and ‘killing civilians.’” She called said his comment was “reckless” and “hurts our cause.” Similarly, the McCain campaign released an ad this week branding Obama’s remarks “dishonorable.” Watch it: But as the Washington Times reports today, McCain himself made ...

Jirair Ratevosian and David Bryden: Foreign Assistance Crucial To World Health And U.S. Security
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — When asked on Face the Nation for specific priorities that might be cut as a result of the economic crisis, Barack Obama offered the possibility that his pledge to double foreign assistance by 2012 might have to be "delayed". Then Joe Biden during the vice-presidential debate echoed Obama's suggestion to "slow down" foreign assistance. Meanwhile, though John McCain has talked about his strong support for foreign aid, he has never made a clear commitment on funding levels. In the first debate he suggested that a full freeze on spending was a ...

Moderators aren't helping us learn much about presidential candidates
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash — ... money, we can't possibly help those on Main Street. Why not? The moderators may not be biased (more on that later), but they are corporate-biased. You might think that's funny coming from PBS, but corporations influence PBS coverage more than the commercial networks since an individual company doesn't have much clout in 8 minutes of commercials in a 30-minute block. In a 90-minute debate, Lehrer wasted time asking the same question FOUR times. What made this question worse was that Gwen Ifill , upset that no one "answered" the question to Lehrer's liking or hers, asked the ...

Capretta: The Dems Health-Care Distortions
Articles on National Review Online — ... Tax Policy Center nor Lewin is known for being friendly to market-based health-care reforms. Still, even their findings expose the Obama-Biden health-care assertions as deceptive at best. For starters, the Obama-Biden campaign has tried to create the impression that the McCain plan would leave households worse off than they are today. Their ads mention that the McCain plan would tax health benefits for the first time ever. Senator Biden took it a step further, stating during the debate between the vice presidential candidates that the McCain plan would replace a $12,000 ...

The "$79 billion surplus"
Left I on the News — ... Joe Biden: "We're spending $10 billion a month while Iraqis have an $80 billion surplus. Barack says it's time for them to spend their own money." ...

Bob Schieffer the latest to prove debate questions aren't helpful to democracy
BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash — ... to find out celebrities are genuinely nice people in real life, and Brokaw didn't disappoint."Anchors and former anchors are nice people, otherwise they wouldn't be anchors. I'm sure even Katie Couric is a nice person at times. But when there's a debate, I don't really want a nice person. I want them to be civilized (which is why Bill O'Reilly will never host a debate ). But I want them to be good moderators and ask good questions. Here's the problem: Jim Lehrer , Gwen Ifill , Tom Brokaw , and Bob Schieffer would make great moderators, and their ...

She’s her mate (and she will stand by her)
Sadly, No! — ... success, not both.” So… even though liberals say women should strive for personal success, what they mean is that women should strive for professional success. And conservatives think that women should do both, but not one or the other. That’s what liberals think. Palin’s cheerfully stated core beliefs and beautiful smile are infectious, and Americans just want to hear more. Let us hear your smile, Sarah. He’s [McCain] proposing a $5,000 tax credit for families so that ...

Income disparity and "Middle Class" assumptions
The Reaction — ... an October rally (via Washington Independent): I know what Americans are going through,” she said after the stock markets took another dive last week. “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. (emphasis added) and Palin at the Vice-Presidential debate: Now you said recently that higher ...

Shannyn Moore: "Death Panels" For Dummies
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... and had gone without it until he got his union card and went to work for British Petroleum on the North Slope of Alaska. Checking with Todd Palin himself revealed that, no, they had had catastrophic coverage all along. She insisted that catastrophic insurance didn't really count and need not be revealed. This sort of slipperiness--about both what the truth was and whether the truth even mattered--persisted on questions great and small. During the vice-presidential debate, Palin stated: About times and Todd and our marriage in our ...

Huckabee is Beyond the Pale
NJDC Blog — ... . The fact is, the two state solution is viewed as the mainstream solution to the conflict (even former Governor and Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin admits this) and it is the consensus view of both American and Israeli Jews. Huckabee’s nonsense about population transfer is absolutely ignorant and impractical for Israel and the Arab world. And his statement that it is ...

Johnathan Wilber: Please Don't Tolerate Me, Reverend Senator Díaz
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... have a problem with gay marriage. I have no problem with gays." What kind of cognitive dissonance is that? If I could be a fly on the wall of your brain! George Orwell might have called this fabulous statement doublethink: "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." (From 1984, that novel that never ceases to be timely.) You'll remember a strikingly similar defense from the vice-presidential debates last November: PALIN: If there's any kind of ...