The VP debate

If the goal last night was to change minds, then last night's debate of the Vice Presidential candidates was a failure. Palin certainly held her own despite a couple of slips. (President Talibani?) Both candidates had been well schooled in the "art" of counting silly votes. At one point Biden's claim about only 5% of the small businesses making more than $250,000 becomes an argument about what is a small business and whether the figure quoted is gross or net income. I am increasingly skeptical of the tendency to count votes. The claims that either candidate voted 472 times to do X, is political nonsense. The more important question is not how many procedural votes a person took which had a peripheral relationship to a topic but what the substance of an elected official's voting patterns are - those two are not the same.

I was also bothered by Biden's discussions about health insurance. Palin had a marvelous chance to nail him on his assertions but she either chose to or was unable to respond. The McCain plan assumes that the market will help lower costs. That is an assumption, but a reasonable one. There is not very good information about what people pay for health insurance - between actual and co-pay costs. Government run programs will be more expensive and Palin missed the chance to do that.

I believe the American people understand the differences in choice between the two campaigns - although they have not finished their calibration of the personal side of these people. Obama and Biden would like to get us out of Iraq sooner than McCain - although realities may limit the range of action for whoever wins. Ditto for domestic politics. There is not much possibility that either candidate will be able to do as much as they promise. There will not be the money.

But did the debate change any minds? No.