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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2008 > October > 02 > Entry
Debate is underway; Biden and Palin mixing it up some
9:17 I notice Palin is talking less about Alaska than she usually does. She often turns questions about national issues back to things that happened in Alaskan politics. I wonder if she has been steered away from that.
9:18 Palin refers to Obama as “Barack.” Interesting since Obama in his debate also called McCain “John” the whole time. Palin says she is in the middle class and that government is the problem for families like her, citing taxes.
9:19 Palin stumbled a bit explaining McCain’s health plan, but not too badly. She seemed to get a bit lost in her words, warning about having health care taken over by “the fed.” But overall she is doing well presenting the McCain side of the issues. Now Biden is going deep into Obama’s plan and zings Palin by saying McCain’s plan is “the ultimate bridge to nowhere.” Gets a chuckle from the crowd.
9:22 Biden stumbles over “characterized.” But overall he seems pretty smooth. You can see his senate experience in the way he speaks.
9:23 Palin is sort of rambling while talking about Alaska and oil companies, saying she fought oil company “greed.” Not her best answer and she may get hit here for misrepresenting her work in Alaska.
9:27 Biden is beating the snot out of oil companies in his answers on energy, painting them as gouging consumers and trying to tie McCain to them.
9:29 Palin defends McCain’s campaign suspension and says he helped. Again a bumpy answer though with some awkward phrasing. She’s had a couple moments now where the echo of her network interviews could be heard. But overall she is coming off OK so far. Half an hour in, she has not had a big stumble.
9:31 Has there ever been this much talk about Alaska in a national debate?
9:32 Ifill goes after climate change, an issue Palin stumbled on with Couric. Palin talks more about Alaska but says she does not attribute all climate change to man’s activities.
9:34 Biden strongly asserts the cause of climate change is man made and suggests it is a fundamental difference that McCain/Palin don’t understand that. And Biden is now touting clean coal, which he panned just days ago.
9:35 Biden: “I have always supported clean coal.” Huh?
9:36 Biden now says his anti-clean coal comment was taken out of context and that he was referring to exporting the technology to China. There will be questions about this for sure.
9:39 Biden says the constitution requires benefits to same sex couples and expresses strong support for gay couples to have the the same rights as other couples. Palin says she is tolerant but said she worries about changing the definition of marriage. She says McCain would never prohibit gay couples from visitation rights. Biden now says he does not support gay marriage. He says this question should be left to the faiths to decide.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: National politics
Comments
By mwm
October 2, 2008 9:33 PM | Link to this
Biden is staying on topic and Palin is not. Palin resorts to republican talking points because she is lost.By Cyndi Dowdy
October 2, 2008 9:35 PM | Link to this
Ms Palin never answered the question about deregulation. Republicans believe that deregulation of business opens up competition and creates wealth at the top that will ‘trickle down’ to the middle class. The entire system is flawed. We are in this financial mess because of Phil Gramm and HE is the guy who is heading Mr. Mccain’s economy policies. This is VERY SCARY no matter what side you are on.By Cyndi Dowdy
October 2, 2008 9:40 PM | Link to this
Health care today requires the payments of the ‘well’ to help pay for the care of the sick. With John McCain’s plan families will struggle even more trying to pay for health care especially if one of them gets sick. A woman who gets breast cancer at 42 could bankrupt her entire family and struggle to FIND a health care provider who will accept her once she has had cancer and can you imagine the rates they would charge her and her family? Again very scary for all of us.By mwm
October 2, 2008 9:51 PM | Link to this
Palin is wrong in her assertion that our enemies hate our way of life. It is the foreign policy failures that have caused nations around the world to hate us.By TRS
October 2, 2008 11:31 PM | Link to this
Have to disagree - Bin Ladin and the radicals consider America decatant and evil. They have attacked us under several administrations, all with differing foreign policy. There is nothing we can say or do that would change their mind - they just plain hate America, freedom and our way of life.By TRS
October 3, 2008 12:04 AM | Link to this
McCain’s healthcare plan addresses high risk or pre existing issues. The healthcare issue is extremely complicated but here’s a comment I would agree with. “Barack Obama is looking to rely mostly on the heavy hand of the government and will impose caps on health care premiums and price controls on drug companies. He would then have the government establish national practice standards for health providers and doctors. The National Health Insurance Exchange, another plan he wants to create, will act as a sort of clearinghouse to make it easier for individuals and businesses to shop around for the best health care.” Imposing caps - the same as price controls. Thats be tried before and has failed miserably. Ultimately it would lead to medical rationing, long waits for services and a general decline. Who will be attracted to the medical field? There is already shortages out there. Drug companies invest much on research. If they are unable to recoop their investment, why do research? National practice standards - do you really want the government doing that? In a number of ways this is a back door approach to nationized health care - just set the standards to a point where private insurers cannot meet them - then the government health care system would be the only one standing. Now thats scary stuff! In essence, there won’t be any clearing house because their won’t be any other health care providers. By the way, what will happen when 47M new people hit an already overtaxed healthcare system?