The so-called debates are puffballs, unworthy of being called debates. They are designed to provide the candidates their minute and half of sound bites. The entire scenario is designed not to ask hard questions and get something from them other than prepared talking points. It's all flash and show without substance. The rules -whatever they are- do not force candidates to provide meaningful and focused responses to questions. I'll save the time and read about it in the news the next day.
"In a genuine town-hall discussion, anybody can ask a real, unvetted question to inject sonic chaos into the proceedings. The crazy questions, the impolite questions, and even the left-field questions about such things as the price of a gallon of milk push candidates out of their comfort zones, away from their talking points, and to some uncultivated acre of their psyches where voters can observe their thinking processes. In the Nashville, Tenn., session, we'll see almost none of that."
http://www.slate.com/id/2201505/
http://www.theworstcandidate.com/
That was certainly the case for the vp debate with Palin. I was watching "meet the press' the other night & they had Gwen Ifil & several other political analysts on & they all agreed that Palin turned it into an infomercial for Sarah. She's good with the camera, a natural, and knows how to sell herself. But it was all memorized bits that spilled out of her mouth & she completely ignored at least 4 questions & instead chose to blather on about selling Sarah, or babbling info that they found at least a dozen errors in. She threw protocol right out the door. "Can I call ya joe?" - what's he supposed to say? Gwen Ifil said that Palin disregarded that there even was a moderator, and dumbed it down by calling them "joe" & "gwen". (they always called her Governor Palin). Too many cutsey eye winks & 'you betcha's'. I also take issue with her lumping middle America together as 'joe six packs' . That used to be a derogatory term. I highly doubt a 60 yr old woman, or professional man wants to be referred to as a joe six pack. My 27 yr old son is highly offended at being labeled as such. They also made the comment that when Biden was sharing how he handled being a single parent when his wife was killed & his kids close to death - Palin should have at least looked at him with some compassion. Instead, she stood there ignoring him, with a stupid grin on her face - she was more like a game show contestant.
You can learn a lot about the candidates through body language as well. In the first debate, McCain came off as pissed off, was very condescending towards Obama (repeatedly), and would not look Obama in the face or eye - rarely ever (Obama kept trying to catch an 'eye connect' with McCain, but McCain would not look at him - lots of political analysts took note of this as well).
Palin played to the camera - it was the "Sarah" show, she knows how to play to it. There were a few times that Biden was talking about sad & upsetting things & Palin kept grinning like an idiiot, staring at her notes on her podium, waiting for "her turn". One of these times, Biden was talking about the genocide in Darfur, and people dying in Chad, and Palin showed no signs of compassion or recognizing what Biden was talking about - she stared at her notes (or listened into her transmitter) - studying what she wanted to say next (memorized bits) - and stood there grinning like a fool. If you doubt how bad this was, try to imagine a tv new reporter talking about thousands of people dying, with a stupid smile plastered on their face while they talked about the grim details. Most people would question the integrity & character of that reporter. Too many people gave Palin a pass on this - called it 'perky'.
On a side note - I heard on the news that the head of Pakistan has had a fatwa declared upon him because of his behavior with Palin at the UN. That's like a death sentence like was declared on Rushdie, isn't it? And yet, Palin thought it was funny that he liked her so much. Palin needs to learn protical. (sp). - if she hopes to deal with heads of countries with beliefs that may differ from hers.
I agree 100%.