Cafe de Mello

I had not intended to write a post until my playlist for the end of the world tomorrow, but I could not wait to write about the Vice Presidential debate. What a stinker.

Maybe it was the McCain campaign's pre-emptive strike, complaining about the objectivity of the moderator, Gwen Ifill, who is writing a book that includes material on Barack Obama. Maybe the negotiated format constrained Ifill from displaying basic competence, but she did not redirect questions when Palin refused to answer the question asked or ask any follow-up questions. Palin's answers screamed for the kind of ask-for-specifics follow-up questions that Katie Couric asked in her interviews with Palin.

Witnessing Palin's repetition of rehearsed answers even when they didn't fit the questions, you had to be screaming for a follow-up request for specifics. I wanted questions like, "Can you name one piece of McCain's maverick legislation, other than the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill, that Senator McCain supported?" I wanted to ask the exact nature of the Wall Street Corruption she was blaming for everything. You have to know that kind of question would have elicited one of those dopey phrase strings we heard from Palin in the Couric interview. It isn't filtering by the mainstream media Palin fears, it is follow-up questions.

And Poor Joe Biden, he has to be given extra credit for self-restraint. If he had tried to fill in for the professionally absent Ifill by asking for specifics or trying to pin Palin to the question asked, he would have been perceived as a bully.

In trying to frame follow-up questions that should have been asked, I reviewed a transcript of the debate, and found Palin's answers even more empty than my first impression. I suspect that many will walk away feeling Palin has acquitted herself adequately. I would challenge those persons to wait two days and read a debate transcript. I think they will be horrified.

This was not the debate we deserved to see.