This poll from Fox News is interesting. I’m sure that Palin’s name is in red just to provide some contrast. It’s the middle choice, so you need some different color in order for people to see it. I mean, if people can’t see Palin’s name, how can they know that they’re voting for the right choice?

Palin from the debate tonight:

There have been huge blunders in the war. There have been huge blunders throughout this administration, as there are with every administration.

But for a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there’s just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that’s where you’re going.

Positive change is coming, though. Reform of government is coming. We’ll learn from the past mistakes in this administration and other administrations.

[emphasis added]

Palin from Couric’s interview:

Couric: When President Bush ran for office, he opposed nation-building. But he has spent, as you know, much of his presidency promoting democracy around the world. What lessons have you learned from Iraq? And how specifically will you try to spread democracy throughout the world?

Palin: Specifically, we will make every effort possible to help spread democracy for those who desire freedom, independence, tolerance, respect for equality. That is the whole goal here in fighting terrorism also. It’s not just to keep the people safe, but to be able to usher in democratic values and ideals around this, around the world.

Riddle me this, Batman: What, specifically, did Palin learn from from the Bush Administration’s mistakes?

I wanted to point this out, to show how Palin was dodging the questions. The portion I’ve excerpted from the transcript is rather long, but you need all of this to illustrate how inept Palin is.

IFILL: Senator Biden, you voted for this bankruptcy bill. Senator Obama voted against it. Some people have said that mortgage- holders really paid the price.

BIDEN: Well, mortgage-holders didn’t pay the price. Only 10 percent of the people who are — have been affected by this whole switch from Chapter 7 to Chapter 13 — it gets complicated.

But the point of this — Barack Obama saw the glass as half- empty. I saw it as half-full. We disagreed on that, and 85 senators voted one way, and 15 voted the other way.

But here’s the deal. Barack Obama pointed out two years ago that there was a subprime mortgage crisis and wrote to the secretary of Treasury. And he said, “You’d better get on the stick here. You’d better look at it.”

John McCain said as early as last December, quote — I’m paraphrasing — “I’m surprised about this subprime mortgage crisis,” number one.

Number two, with regard to bankruptcy now, Gwen, what we should be doing now — and Barack Obama and I support it — we should be allowing bankruptcy courts to be able to re-adjust not just the interest rate you’re paying on your mortgage to be able to stay in your home, but be able to adjust the principal that you owe, the principal that you owe.

That would keep people in their homes, actually help banks by keeping it from going under. But John McCain, as I understand it — I’m not sure of this, but I believe John McCain and the governor don’t support that. There are ways to help people now. And there — ways that we’re offering are not being supported by — by the Bush administration nor do I believe by John McCain and Governor Palin.

IFILL: Governor Palin, is that so?

PALIN: That is not so, but because that’s just a quick answer, I want to talk about, again, my record on energy versus your ticket’s energy ticket, also.

I think that this is important to come back to, with that energy policy plan again that was voted for in ’05.

When we talk about energy, we have to consider the need to do all that we can to allow this nation to become energy independent.

It’s a nonsensical position that we are in when we have domestic supplies of energy all over this great land. And East Coast politicians who don’t allow energy-producing states like Alaska to produce these, to tap into them, and instead we’re relying on foreign countries to produce for us.

We’re talking about a bankruptcy bill. Biden transitions to how we should deal with the problem now. Biden points out how McCain was surprised that there was a subprime mortgage crisis, and how McCain, Bush, and Palin are out of touch.

Palin responds, (I’m paraphrasing) “No, that’s not right, and now I’m going to talk about energy policy.” What the fuck. No one has talked about it for several minutes. We’re talking about the financial crisis. You try to show that you’re not out of touch by completely ignoring the issue. Brilliant. Apparently, your answer to the mortgage crisis is “drill, baby, drill.”

She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and when she’s in unfamiliar territory, she resorts to changing the topic. It’s quite masterful really. First, she brings up the energy bill, which they did talk about. Then, she uses that as a spring-board to talk about energy independence, which has nothing to do with anything. I want to call it a non sequitur, but it’s not. She’s just playing word association. She dodges the question, brings up something unrelated from several minutes ago, and then brings up an entirely new subject.

This is why Joe Biden won.

I was talking with Lloyd before the debate, and my prediction was that the right-wing pundit class would give Palin the “Most Improved” Award and then declare victory. Of course, even the left-wing pundits were also giving her “most improved” props. You didn’t hear it in such words. You heard, “exceeded expectations,” etcetera. It’s junk, and she was horrible. Just because she cleared a bar so low she could hop over it merely by being somewhat coherent, doesn’t mean she did a good job. Palin spent all of her time filibustering. She never actually said anything; she never actually answered the question. And because of the debate format, no one could challenge her on that. Her performance was pathetic, and everyone would’ve said so had she not been even more pathetic with the Couric interview.

If you want to label a lack of understanding of the issues as “folksiness,” then be my guest, but “doggone it,” I have never actually heard anyone say “doggone it” in my life. (Unironically, that is.) She said McCain picked her because of her closeness to the Heartland, but she’s almost from Canada. Please.

It’s funny how pathetic the right-wing spin is. The idea is that was she was supposed to re-energize a base who’d become somewhat disillusioned. If she does so by not being embarrassingly pathetic, then the Republican Party really is garbage. I mean, look at them recently. They’ve become a party of whiners, decrying Couric’s softball questions as “liberal elite bias.” They cried that they didn’t vote for a bill because Nancy Pelosi’s speech was too mean. It’s a worthless party, and Palin is a worthless candidate.

Biden killed her. Ask anyone who hates the war, and you’ll see how successful Biden was in tying McCain-Palin to Bush-Cheney. Then, look at Bush’s approval rating. Sorry, Palin’s best response is “He’s a maverick!” Let me also say this, on every issue in the last few years where McCain has bucked his party, he’s been on the wrong side. He was for that horrible “comprehensive” immigration bill. He was for that 1st Amendment-bashing McCain-Feingold finance reform. Notice how she never brings those bills up. NEVER. “Maverick”? Whatever, that fall-back talking point doesn’t cut it if you can’t be specific. It’s an empty phrase, and she is an empty candidate.

Congrats, Palin. You won the “Most Improved Award.” It means nothing.