Garling Gauge

Biden’s New Role: Good Cop

With Rahm Emanuel as the Eagle’s arrows, Biden might have to wield the olive branches in the White House. 

Why Obama Chose Biden

Great article about Sen. Joe Biden by Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker.  Obama chose Biden to help him govern.

Biden Laughs at SNL Debate Skit

Joe Biden is amazing.  If you’re looking for a real laugh from a real person, look no further.

SNL Mocks Biden-Palin VP Debate

…And some people actually thought Palin actually won the debate.  These just keep getting better.

Biden-Palin, on Best-Worst of Dick Cheney

Compared to Biden’s answer, Palin sounds like a child when discussing Cheney’s duck hunting accident.

Undecideds: Biden Wins Debate

CNN viewer response polls shows uncommited voters say Joe Biden dominated the debate over Palin.

Biden-Palin ‘Debate Firsts’

Biden shows mastery & Palin lives another day 

The roller coaster ride that is Sarah Palin reaches its apex tonight, as Sen. Joe Biden and the governer square off in their only debate of the ‘08 campaign. 

The pre-analysis on this debate is overwhelming, with pundits generally agreeing that Biden should ignore Palin, focusing on pro-Obama/anti-McCain rhetoric, and try not to make any news; whereas Palin simply needs to show up to beat expectations. 

It is clear that this debate–similar to Sen. Clinton’s speech amongst all the speeches at the DNC convention–is the highlight of the debate schedule. 

This is surely the quirkiest debate in memory (save Adm. Stockdale in ‘92), and everyone is on their seat in anticipation.  So without further ado–and with past debate firsts laying the foundation, I present you with the first incidents that occur during the vice presidential debate, the Biden-Palin debate firsts:

• First to wear a teal jacket: Moderator Gwen Ifill
• First to come on stage: Gov. Sarah Palin
• First to ask the other candidate of she could call him by his first name: Palin
• First to cough: Sen. Joe Biden
• First to smile behind the podium: Biden
• First question is about the bailout
• First to mention Wall Street: Biden
• First to mention his running mate: Biden
• First candidate to reach the top of CNN’s voter meter in approval: Biden
• First to mention soccer games: Palin
• First to mention fear: Palin
• First to address the moderator by her first name: Biden
• First to mention Bosnia: Biden
• First to say he has just as many friends on both sides of the aisle: Biden
• First to ask the moderator if he has to stay on topic: Biden
• First to attack the other candidate’s running mate: Biden
• First to call McCain a maverick: Palin
• First to wear a gigantic American flag pin: Palin
• First to say ‘darn right’: Palin
• First to say ‘joe six-pack’: Palin
• First to say we shouldn’t live outside our means: Palin
• First to say ‘hurtin’ and ‘hack of a lot’ in the same sentence: Palin
• First to talk about his local gas station: Biden
• First to say the Middle Class needs tax relief: Biden
• First to stutter (slightly): Biden
• First to parry the other candidate’s arguments: Palin
• First to say she didn’t intend on answering the questions the way the moderator wants her to: Palin
• First candidate to get cut off by the moderator: Palin
• First to mention Ronald Reagan: Biden
• First to talk exceedingly fast: Palin (she’s obviously nervous)
• First to obviously talk off the cuff: Biden
• First to mention the bridge to nowhere: Biden
• First to get a laugh from the audience: Biden
• First to lay out what he won’t give up, and what he’ll fight for: Biden
• First to mention his time limit light is blinking: Biden
• First to address the other candidate directly: Palin
• First to mention corporate oil CEOs by their first names: Palin
• First to say her area of expertise is energy: Palin
• First to say there isn’t a whole lot she’s promised: Palin
• First to ask a rhetorical question: Biden
• First to use the words ‘bucks’ and ‘folks’ in the same sentence: Surprise! It’s Biden
• First to say the word ‘greed’ in three answers in a row: Palin 
• First to say ‘toxic mess’: Palin
• First to call herself a ‘main-streeter’: Palin (which of her three homes is on Main Street?)
• First to say he’s paraphrasing: Biden
• First to call Biden an ‘East Coast Politician’: Palin
• First to shake his head: Biden
• First to say she doesn’t want to argue about the causes of global warming: Palin
• First to look like a deer in headlights: Palin
• First to hold a pen while he’s talking: Biden
• First to talk about himself in third person: Biden
• First to say China is polluting the west coast of the United States: Biden
• First to say ‘The chant is: Drill, Baby, Drill’: Palin
• First to say the world ‘raping’: Biden
• First to laugh: Biden

• First to raise his hands above his chin: Biden
• First to touch her chin: Ifill
• First to raise her eyebrows when the other candidate answers a question: Palin (when Biden was talking about equal rights for homosexual couples)
• First to say she was tolerant: Palin
• First to say she is being straight up with America: Palin
• First to say she has a variety of friends: Palin
• First to say we need a timeline for the Iraq war: Biden
• The most popular answer according to the CNN voters poll: Biden on ending the war
• First to say Biden is waving the ‘white flag of surrender’: Palin
• First to mention the other candidate’s family: Palin
• First say mention Dick Cheney: Biden
• First to say he loves John McCain: Biden
• First to suggest the VP should have more power: Palin
• First to say you don’t have to believe her or John McCain on Iraq: Palin
• First to say Iran’s theorcacy is who truly controls the military in Iran: Biden
• First to say the word ‘peace’: Palin
• First to say the word ‘holocaust’: Palin
• First to say he has been the best friend to Israel in the U.S. Senate: Biden
• First to say there have been huge blunders in the war, and huge blunders during the Bush administration: Palin
• First to say she respects Biden: Palin
• First to compare McCain to Bush over six times in a row: Biden
• First to get choked up: Biden
• First to point both his index fingers at the camera: Biden
• First to say his time is almost up: Biden
• First to sigh: Biden
• First to say the American people has a stomach for success: Biden
• First to mention Chad: Biden
• First to say it’s obvious she’s a Washington outsider: Palin
• First to say ‘Americans are craving that straight talk’: Palin
• First to say she watched the primary debates: Palin
• First to say she’s a humanitarian: Palin
• First to mention joebiden.com: Guess who
• First to suggest a hypothetical situation that Obama would die in office: Ifill
• First to mention the Bush Doctrine: Biden
• First to say this is the most important election since 1932: Biden
• First to say she has different opinions than McCain: Palin
• First to say he spends a lot of time in Home Depot: Biden
• First to mention his neighborhood: Biden
• First to say ’say it ain’t so, Joe’: Palin
• First to mention the other candidate’s spouse: Palin
• First to mention heaven: Palin
• First to give a shout out to third graders: Palin
• First to say everyone gets extra credit tonight: Ifill
• First to say he’ll be in the room with Obama during every major presidential decision: Biden
• First candidate to stratch his face: Biden
• First to say Dick Cheney has been the most dangerous VP in American history: Biden
• First to say she’s connected with the ‘heartland of America’: Palin
• First to say the word ‘tapped’ in three answers in a row: Palin
• First to quote President Reagan: Palin
• First to say McCain voted against the Violence Against Women Act: Biden
• First to say he knows what it’s like to be a single parent: Biden
• First to mention Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney: Palin
• First to say ‘we have not got to allow partisanship’: Palin
• First to mention kitchen tables: Biden
• First to mention Roe vs. Wade: Biden
• First to say the word ‘purse’: Palin
• First to mention braces: Biden
• First to say she has a diverse family: Palin
• First to have a closing statement: Palin
• First to say she likes talking to Americans without the filter of the mainstream media: Palin
• First to say she’s proud to be an American: Palin
• First to mention his father: Biden
• First to say ‘may God protect our troops’: Biden
• First to shake the moderator’s hand: Palin
• First to greet the other candidate’s family: Biden

End Debate.

Analysis: Both candidates gave the best debate performance of their lives.  As CNN put it: Biden wins debate, Palin exceeds expectations.  Put another way: Biden answers questions, Palin spouts memorized lines.  Or to put it another way: Biden sounds presidential, Palin spews random platitudes like a simpleton.

Anyone who seriously thought Palin won the debate didn’t listen to what she said, only how she said it.

More Debate Firsts here.

Image: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/, salon.com/Reuters: Rick Wicking, huffingtonpost.com

Biden Now Gaffe-Proof

Do something enough and it doesn’t make news.  Personally I love Biden.  Speak your mind, brother!

Biden on McCain Economics

How Biden Can Beat Palin in VP Debate

Keen words of advice for Mr. Experience vs. Mrs. Newcomer.  Be warm, polite,and forget she’s a woman.