Saturday, October 04, 2008
Palin, Biden; VP Debate Review
* Democrat VP Candidate Joe Biden wore his U.S. Flag lapel pin. He's quite the patriot, isn't he, just like his top of the ticket running mate Barack Hussein Obama, Junior who wore his U.S. Flag lapel pin during his first debate with Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain.
* Palin answered the first question. Biden didn't.
* Palin put the blame of Freddie and Fannie squarely where it belongs: on the Dems.
Now, let's jump to two egregious humongo-giganti-normous things that Joe Biden got wrong:
Biden, Lebanon and Hezbollah
* Biden said, that along with France, we - the United States - "kicked (terrorist group) Hezbollah out of Lebanon." This is absurd, and if it had been said by Palin the MSM would collectively premiere a new news channel available on basic cable: SPG-TV, Sarah Palin's Gaffes TV. Not at all surprising, was the decidedly Liberal moderator Gwen Ifill completely uninterested in calling Biden on his bluff. Ifill wasted no time in following-up with Palin when she said something that Ifill decided to sensationalize. But with Biden, Ifill was more than dutiful in allowing him to create, on the spot, his own facts, he went unchallenged by Ifill.
National Review Online corrects Biden's Hezbollah-Lebanon gaffe:
Hezbollah’s been there since the early 1980’s of course, blossoming throughout the 1990’s to become now over a third of the population of Lebanon with 2 cabinet members, a host of parliamentarians, and schools, clinics, and basically an entirely separate governance infrastructure in all of southern Lebanon and elsewhere.
Biden's Fuzzy War Cost Math
* Biden's rhetoric, comparing the cost of the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq, was designed to imply that funding for Afghanistan has been somehow neglected in favor - and to the detriment - of Iraq. NPR:
Biden: "We have spent more money -- we spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we've spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country. Let me say it again. Three weeks in Iraq; seven years -- seven years, or six and a half years, in Afghanistan."
Michael Medved writing at Townhall:
The most irritating and most seriously misleading involved the relative cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Three times, with great earnestness and passion, he cited a mysterious statistic claiming that we spend more every three weeks in Iraq than we have invested in the Afghan War for its duration.
Actually, statistics from The Congressional Research Service (posted on the website of the Center for Arms Control and Nuclear Non-Proliferation) show that our biggest Iraq expenditure came in Fiscal Year 2008 and reached $158 billion – or $3 billion per week. This means that Biden’s “three weeks in Iraq” would cost $9 billion at most.
And what about our commitment to Afghanistan? Has it really been $9 billion over seven years, as Biden suggested? The truth is we’ve spent $177.5 total in Afghanistan (compared to $661.1 billion in Iraq). This means that Biden either over-stated the cost of our war in Iraq TWENTY TIMES, or else understated the cost of our war in Afghanistan by a factor of twenty.
* Biden said that Obama warned of the subprime crisis two year ago. President Bush warned of financial stability problems within Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac well beyond two years ago. Democrat Congressman Barney Frank and Democrat Senator Cluck Schumer dismissed Bush's warnings. Frank said Freddie or Fanny, "are not facing any kind of financial crisis."
* Only 9 minutes into the debate, Biden let loose with a Big Sigh, reminiscent of Albert Gore, Junior's interminable sighs during one of his presidential debates with George W. Bush in 2000. Was Biden tired and bored already, 9 minutes into the debate? It seemed so.
* Palin said the government needs to live on less revenue. No truer words have ever been spoke.
* Biden repeated the Obama lie that "no one making less than $250,000 a year will see their tax burden increase." This is a blatant lie. If you think that Obama will be able to pay for his one-trillion dollar spending programs by only taxing the top 5% of wealthy people, you are dreaming a dream that is rooted in pure hallucinatory and delusional fantasies.
Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Bin Laden
* Biden said he finds a nuclear armed Iran and Pakistan "dangerous." This is contrary to Biden having said that Israel better "get use to a nuclearized Iran."
* Biden said Iraq is not the center of al-Qaida. An odd statement, considering Bin-Laden himself has called Iraq "the center of al-Qaida."
* Biden referred to Hamas as a terrorist organization. He's right, they are. Palin should have shot back that Obama did fundraising for Hamas.
* After Palin's response on Afghanistan, Biden let loose another Big Biden Sign.
* Palin hit it out of the ball park when she said that Biden and Obama's strategy is, "the White Flag of surrender." You will notice Biden did not refute this, not one bit. Biden made no attempt to counter the correct accusation that both he and Obama embrace the "white Flag" of surrender.
* Biden said that Obama never said he would sit down with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Obama said exactly what Biden denies.
Here is both the question asked, and answered, by Obama regarding his exact response in meeting with - in his first term - among others, the leaders of Iran. The Nation:
(Question): In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since. In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?
[...]
Obama: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous.
There's no nuance to dissect for those who try to spin that Obama didn't say what he said.
Here's the essential part of the question: "would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea[?]
The leader of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, correct? If anyone asked you this, this would be considered to today be an accurate and factual response, would it not?
Obama: "I would." That's all there is too it.
Mortgages and Bankruptcy
* Biden said bankruptcy court judges should be permitted to reset the interest rate and principle dollar amounts on home mortgages? Whoa - does Marxism get any better than this? Biden said this would help keep banks financially solvent? Really? Joe Public has mortgage principle for $100,000 and a bankruptcy court judge - on a whim - decides to lower that amount to $75,000 and somehow this helps keep a bank solvent? Whew - talk about fuzzy math. What kind of economics is this?
Kosovo
* Biden called Kosovo a success. Really, it's a success? Well then, let's see what happens when Peace-keeping troops are pulled out of there. The U.S. still has American Military Troops in Kosovo, they've been there since Bill Clinton put them there. Let's pull the Peacekeepers out of there and then we'll find out if it is a success or not.
Darfur
* Biden promoted the idea of U.S. Military involvement in Darfur. This is a strange statement, because his close Democrat ally, fellow Democrat Senator Cluck Schumer said, "Forcing our troops to referee a civil war is not getting us anywhere. It's making things worse. We want to change [U.S.] missions away from policing a civil war."
General
* Palin said that she has always been proud of America. This was a perfect statement lobbed at America-hater Michelle "Pickles The Dangerous Washerwoman" Obama who , on two separate occasions said, "she has never been proud of her country" until her husband ran for president.
* Biden said, "This is the most important election in your entire life." Every losing Democrat Ticket has said this. The team of John Kerry-John Edwards said it. The team of Albert Gore, Junior-Joe Lieberman said this. The team of Mike Dukakis-Lloyd Bentsen said this. It's important, yes, but not the most important election of your entire life.
* Biden spent most of his time looking backward, criticizing the Bush-Cheney Administration rather than giving Americans a true and accurate view for the future. Biden couldn't tell Americans the truth about his and Obama's plans for the future because their view is extreme Marxism, bigger government, higher taxes, terrorist appeasement and The White Flag of Surrender.
* Biden and the 100,000 police on the street: This never happened. Neither Biden nor Bill Clinton or anyone else put 100,000 police in the street. This never happened. The following was written October, 1998 and appears in Slate:
[We] checked with the Justice Department and discovered that--six long years into the Clinton presidency--Congress has approved funding for a total of 88,000 cops. And less than half of that number are currently walking a beat. As of March, only 43,305 men and woman in blue have ever been hired under Clinton's courageous 100,000-cops initiative. And that figure, by the way, includes several thousand would-be officers currently in training programs.
* Palin talked about the future. Biden talked about the past.
McCain - Palin
Appearances
* Biden: Did he have an eyelid-job, plastic surgery on eyelids when they become too fleshy and get in the way of blinking, especially his right eye, it looked puffy. It looked that way to me.
* Biden looked wooden, stiff and the Stuffed Shirt that Americans know he is.
* Biden continually used phrases like, "let me repeat" this or that in an attempt to run out his clock time.
* Palin used every second of her time, solidly explaining and articulating issues and plans for the future of America. Biden, as many are saying, spent his time looking backward.
* Biden was shallow, superficial and lacked substance.
Post Debate:
I flipped television stations frequently, from one network to the other and found the following post-debate analysis statements from the following individuals:
* On ABC, former VP Candidate Geraldine Ferraro said, "Palin held her own and then some. She was able to deal with the issues."
* On NBC, Tom Brokaw said, "Democrats are happy there is only one [Vice Presidential] debate." What does this tell you? That Democrats are afraid of how Biden would come off if there had been two or three VP debates. Democrats know that Biden would perform poorly, and he did.
I'm sure the Lefty Blogosphere and the Insane Liberal Clown Posse think Biden won the debate. Their thinking shows you how steeped in denial Obama-Biden Cultists really are.
Biden wore a nice suit, his necktie was perfectly knotted and I give him high fashion kudos for that (I wonder who tied it for him? Mitt Romney?), he smiled, even forced a laugh or two or perhaps they were genuine, he seems to personally like Palin, and who wouldn't?
I'm sure the ILCP expected Palin to fail, to appear like a deer in the headlights, stammering and stumbling around for a reponse. She didn't. She was articulate, solid, knowledgeable, genuine. She won the debate, but the MSM has too much invested in Obama than they do to give Palin the praise she deserves.
©2008
Labels: Biden, Debates, Election 2008, Fannie, Freddie, ILCP, JoeBama, McCain, Osama Obama, Sarah Palin
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