Sarah Palin came into the vice presidential debate lugging two sets of expectations — one from Democrats who hoped she would give the same awkward, halting answers she’s given in recent interviews and another from Republicans who were counting on her to deliver a knockout punch to Joe Biden.
She probably disappointed both on Thursday night as she made a homespun pitch to the mothers of America.
Palin held her own in a much anticipated face-off with Biden in which they each seemed leery of doing direct combat. Biden and Palin mostly fired past one another, aiming at the men at the top of the tickets.
It had been made clear for weeks what the consequences would be for Biden if he tried to bully Palin, and he worked very hard not to. He obviously resisted the temptation to correct her when she mispronounced as “McClellan” the name of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David D. McKiernan.
Palin, similarly, went into the debate knowing the consequences of trying to upstage Biden on matters of policy.
When asked what campaign promises she would have to give up in light of the recent financial downturn, she said “What have I been at this — five weeks? So I haven’t promised that much.”
The two didn’t directly engage each other for most of the first hour, until Palin took a shot at Biden on the issue of his vote to authorize the Iraq war, but that passed quickly.
Biden couldn’t resist a little laugh at Palin when she was groping through moderator Gwen Ifill’s arcane question about the constitutional definition of the office of the vice presidency, but he generally kept any contempt for her inexperience pretty well masked.
Palin did gig Biden with a “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” when the Democrat made the final of his many efforts to cast McCain as a continuation of George W. Bush’s administration.
But both seemed relieved to not have had a brawl.
What Biden and Palin were trying hardest to do was make their pitches to middle-class, middle-Americans. In that arena, Palin made the best impression.
She gave an endearing “shout-out” to her brother’s third grade class and appeared believably outraged when she said it was time for “Joe Six Packs and hockey moms” to team up against corruption.
Biden, conversely, sounded awkward talking about his many trips to Home Depot.
If undecided women were the target, Palin found her audience Thursday.
