Palin -- Like a Student Who Never Read the Book

Watching Sarah Palin try to debate Sen. Joe Biden during the vice presidential debate Thursday night (Oct. 2, 2008) must have had a familiar ring to a lot of teachers in the audience.

Wasn't it just like a student writing a review of a book she never read?

At least students try to be a little subtle about it. They don't usually note that they don't want to answer the question that the teacher asked and then try to fake it. They know that's a failing grade right off the bat. They usually just try to fake it by writing about something they do know something about and hope their phony rhetoric will carry the day.

Palin didn't even give the moderator, Gwen Ifill, that courtesy. Several times she flat out said she wouldn't answer the question and instead trotted out the lines she memorized the last few days alongside the creek in Sedona. Ifill was way too tolerant of that kind of behavior. She would have been within her rights to press a little harder for an answer since Palin did agree to the debate format, which entailed answering questions from a moderator.

I never thought Palin would fall totally flat, but the question remains why she did not. The questions in a debate are fairly predictable -- Iraq, Iran, the economy, health care. Palin could be prepped for those. Interviews are a little harder to prep for. No one thought Palin would be asked such tough questions as what newspapers do you read, what Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with, and so on. No one thought to prep her for those.

No one thought they had to, either.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden performed not like a student giving a review of a book he had actually read. He performed more like the guy who wrote the book.

He was a class act from start to finish, not condescending, just knowledgeable, mostly ignoring Palin and going after John McCain's record and policies.

Joe Biden will be an outstanding vice president.