Am I arguing that she's not likable as a person? I'm sure she is, perhaps not to me since I don't have kids and would find both her accent and over-simplified worldview highly grating. But I don't elect people to the 2nd highest executive office in the country based on how great of a mom or dad they are or have been, nor based on their accent.

In my world, I cannot in good conscience elect someone who does not understand basic issues, over-simplifies complex problems from day 1 and who substitutes for wisdom sarcastic phrases, trite tag lines, rote “facts” and her own “folksy” vernacular. Regardless of how down-home it makes her seem, I don't want someone who SEEMS nice, but IS NOT qualified. Sadly, I do not think I can vote for someone who chose a running mate like that either.

For all their folksy witticisms about a Straight Talk Express and deriding the other side about “there you go again looking back”, I have not heard much (anything?) to differentiate the McCain/Palin camp from Bush/Chaney. I have not heard anything like straight talk from McCain that did not divert the conversation back to the past and deflect the spotlight on Obama's history (see: The Surge, Obama's vote to cut funding for the troops.)

She's no more likable than she was when this whole thing started in August. She would have made me like her a whole lot better as an undecided moderate voter if she had stuck to answering the questions and clarified her own position or that of her running mate's without defining it as essentially unObama. The only times I did find her compelling and perked up with optimism about her Straight Talk was early on regarding her frequent safety-net energy stance (not a huge surprise, since she's from Alaska) and later her answer on gay marriage (a huge surprise, since I believe she's stretching the truth about her own convictions at best while also not speaking for John McCain or the Republican Party.)

I do agree that it was a draw in terms that it was not a game-changer for undecided voters. Obama/Biden have been clear on their platform from the beginning, so nothing new here. McCain/Palin has struggled to impress upon me how they can be differentiated from Bush/Chaney and that did not coalesce last night. Believe me, I would have LOVED to hear Gov. Palin expound on those differences even if they were coated in folksy phrases.

Last night's VP debate presented us witt this:

Both candidates did okay. The universe (liberals, anyway) expected (and hoped) that Palin would fail miserably, and she did not. During the first part of the debate, she did better than Biden. She made one mistake (changing the subject rather than annihilating Biden about something he and Obama want to do: if I heard right, they want to reduce interest rates and _principal_ on outstanding home loans) and in my view was working to recover that superior position after that, and she didn't do this. Once or twice she did what McCain did that I didn't like to hear (or see), repeat typical sound bites in answering questions. She also failed to take Biden apart when Biden argued that progressive taxation is justified due to “fairness.” It is nothing of the kind, and with the size of government Obama and Biden want, it will simply be impossible to tax those over $250,000 and reduce taxes on everyone else. The amount of income that needs to be taxed to support what the Dems want forces them to reach well down into the middle class portion of aggregate income. Biden probably had begun the debate deliberately in a timid or more accurately, careful and conservative manner but loosened up about the time he made the controversial statement about revising loan contracts and Palin didn't demolish it, and him. As Biden loosened up he began to do much bettter. I know everyone was afraid of Biden saying something stupid, but he didn't, he actually did quite well when he became animated, it's probably now worth the risk to “let Biden be Biden” out on the campaign trail and for the media to begin to cover him rather than avoid covering him to conceal his gaffes from the public (so as to continue supporting the Democratic Party this year, same as every other year). Overall, it was a draw. Both candidates did fine. It's a draw because honest people would have to strain to name a winner. Neither candidate stood out immediately as better and neither one did notably better.