Palin eases GOP jitters, you betcha
Gov. Sarah Palin reminded Americans on Thursday night why so many of them greeted her rise to national prominence with enthusiasm when John McCain picked her as his running mate.
Appearing assertive and confident in her national debate premiere, Palin battled Sen. Joseph Biden on a broad range of issues -- the Wall Street meltdown, taxes and spending, Iraq, foreign relations, which candidate best represents change -- and more than held her own.
She displayed a sensibility for the worries of the middle class: "Go to the kids' soccer game on Saturday and ask any parent, I betcha you're going to hear some fears" about the economy. She credited McCain with warning two years ago about the dangers of under-regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, organizations at the root of the mortgage crisis. She praised him for putting country ahead of politics to try to push Washington toward a bipartisan economic rescue bill.
On international issues, the area where she has been considered to be weak, Palin appeared to get under Biden's skin when she criticized Barack Obama for saying he would meet without preconditions with some of the world's worse dictators. Biden's face turned grim, and he went so far as to deny that Obama had ever said he would meet without preconditions with the president of Iran, when in fact the Democratic presidential nominee said that during the primary.
Palin was upbeat throughout the 90-minute debate, even winking at the camera a couple of times. As the candidates were introduced, she asked Biden if she could "call you Joe?"
When asked about her comment several months ago that she didn't know what the role of the vice president was, she responded she had been joking but that it "was a lame joke because no one got it," drawing laughter from the audience.
She drew a chuckle from Biden when she responded to one of his points by quipping, "Say it ain't so, Joe." She was gently upbraiding him for focusing on the past and playing the blame game instead of talking about the future, which is what the American voters want to hear about.
By portraying an optimistic vision for America, by painting a McCain presidency ready to confidently confront the tough challenges of the economy and the war, by coming across as a Main Street American and by handling the hard questions, Palin went a long way toward alleviating the jitters some Republicans had after she had a couple of bad interviews.