Veep debate=somewhat entertaining.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY BELOW. DUH.

For once, I actually watched a vice-presidential debate. Usually, I opt out of watching these things because usually, VPs don't really matter that much. Of course that's what I thought before Dick Cheney decided he could change the Constitution's definition of the VP's responsibilities, but that's a whole different story. The real reason I wanted to watch the debate last night was in the hopes of catching a trainwreck in the form of Sarah Palin. You know, collapsing into incoherent sentences and running off the stage at some point. Alas, that didn't happen, but it was still pretty darn good.

I'll admit that I really knew nothing about Joe Biden going in, other than the fact that he's a longtime Democratic senator from Delaware. After watching the debate, I was thoroughly impressed. The guy is smart, calm, and he actually answered the questions posed to him! I'm sure that means he's a bad debater by every definition of the word, but I hate when politicians are asked a direct question and they say everything but what could be construed as an answer. Not Joe. Good for him.

Palin, on the other hand, has just been too entertaining lately. I agree with the pundits that her recent interview performances set the bar so low that she really just had to utter a complete sentence to look competent, and she did manage to do that. My favorite line of the night from Palin: "John McCain is the man we need to leave...uh, lead." I know, honest slip-up, we all do it, but Chris and I were laughing hysterically on the couch. The one thing that grated on my nerves was Palin's passive-aggressive tactic of smiling and making a joke about how she must not know how things are done around here, instead of directly criticizing one of Biden's points. If I heard one more folksy colloquialism come out of her mouth I might have been driven to drink. Our leaders need to be professional, not folksy. That's one of my pet peeves with GWB, too. Heh heh.

In the end, it wasn't all that I'd hoped for, but I did learn a lot about both candidates. And it cemented my view that there is no way in hades I'm voting for McCain with that crazy woman as his VP pick.