Oh my gosh . . . watching her try to answer that was great! I also loved watching Katie scowl at her while she tries to think (make up) an answer.

On a serious note, I am very disappointed about Biden's views on abortion. A woman only has rights over her body for the first 3 months?

It is so painful to watch her in these interviews...you can literally see the wheels turning as she tries to come up with more generic phrases to avoid actually answering the question. Maybe that works when you're a governor...as V.P. it probably helps to actually know facts.

I can't believe how generic her answers were. I'm not a big fan of Biden, but at least his answers were thought-out. Seriously though, Palin's answers were the kind you hear in middle school debates. BTW, did anyone watch the Daily Show last night? The whole thing was about Palin's interview and they showed a clip when Katie asked her about rape and incest, and Palin couldn't just come out and say that she was against abortion in that scenario too. All she kept saying was "pro-life counseling". Like her views are any secret!?! Everyone who's been keeping up in the election knows this.

And States' rights my ass. It's pretty obvious that with North Dakota and Colorado that the States already have this right and are exercising it.

I'm going to go take a shower.

I was a little bothered by how much Biden seemed to hedge his answer, it would've been much stronger if he'd argued the right to privacy and the right to make decisions regarding one's reproductive health. Close with an analogy, imagine the government banned the use of penicillin -- because they thought bacteria was a form of life worth protecting.

His close with the Violence Against Women Act was pretty strong.

Then, there was Palin... The rumor mill of the internet and cable news made it seem that she couldn't name a Supreme Court case. In all fairness, she was asked for something narrower -- a case she didn't agree with. The state's right answer was really rather weak, hell Dredd Scott left it to the states -- how'd that work out?

This is just the cherry on the sundae known as Palin media appearances. I actually put together a bit of an archive of all of Palin's interviews, if you want to take a moment in preparation for the debate tonight -- learn what a non-answer filled with generalities looks like.

www.SarahPalinISNTHillaryClinton.com

Damnit, the debate is tonight? I was thinking it was on a Friday, like the presidential one (I'm Canadian, so no being horrified that I didn't know the date) I wanted to go to bed early!

Her answers are sooooo "beauty" queenish! The Iraq... such as... She scares the shit out of me.

On a serious note, I am very disappointed about Biden's views on abortion. A woman only has rights over her body for the first 3 months?

Well, technically, that is what Roe held, and it was the question he was asked:
"Why do you think Roe v. Wade was a good decision?"

"Because it's as close to a consensus that can exist in a society as heterogeneous as ours. What does it say? It says in the first three months that decision should be left to the woman."

I do agree that he didn't really expand on that or state that his view is different, though.

On another point, Palin's answer that she believes in states' rights and is a federalist:
"I'm, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas."

That's the opposite of federalism, you dolt!

Her answers are very "beauty queenish" I agree. Eveything sounds like she's been coached to say it.

Sooo excited about the debate. It will probably be pretty brutal.

Well y'all know Biden is a pretty dedicated Catholic anyway, right?

Biden was just sort of summarizing what Roe actually means (you know, cuz he understands it) and that he feels it's a fairly good ruling. Biden is a seriou Catholic, but I seriously respect the fact that he puts the rights of women before his personal religious beliefs. Could he possibly be *more* pro-choice? Sure, but considering, he ain't bad.

But it scares me that Palin doesn't know...things.

Also, considering that Biden was chairing the Judiciary committee in 1987, when the Senate rejected Robert Bork (Scalia's mentor), and that Bork's replacement, Anthony Kennedy, was the decisive vote in Casey v. Planned Parenthood, I'm willing to cut Biden some slack on the abortion issue.

Some people are good at bullshitting their way out of a corner...Sarah Palin ain't one of them.

On some level I feel sorry for her...I mean, I was trying to come up with a Supreme Court decision I disagreed with and all I could come up with was Dred Scott. But my focus lately has been on passing psychology, not trying to appear like I'm ready to be leader of the country -- she should be thinking about things like that. Just be well versed in one other controversial case, that's all you need!

Even with these stumbling answers, I'm still concerned about the debate. It has real potential to be totally cringe-worthy if she continues these awkward, fumbling responses. However, I think that if she pulls together her responses into something that APPEARS to be coherent but really avoids the question, she may be well received. The truth is, a lot of people don't care about facts, statistics, or even answers to the specific questions asked, they will judge on personality. My concern is that even if she completely avoids the question, she'll manage to do it in a way that actually strings the sentences together and a lot of people will be more impressed than they should be. It seems that even in this second interview, she manages to sound considerably more confident even though many of us can see she's covering the fact that she's drawing a blank. There is an interesting article about exactly what my concern is here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1001/p09s01-coop.html

So my hope is that the moderator doesn't allow the BS and pushes for real answers.

Palin's humiliating performance aside...

I was one of many that was really underwhelmed by Obama's choice of Biden as his VP, but the more I hear him talk, the more I like him. I think he's a great addition to the ticket, and with Hilary in the cabinet (I'm crossing my fingers) I think this just may be one kick ass administration.

Lisa--

Or, at least, when asked to respond to a Palin string of nonsense, Biden simply prefaces his repsonse with something like "there were a lot of unrelated ideas there, but I'll see what I can do.", or something like that, that makes it clear that the long string of words was just nonsense.

Sooo excited about the debate. It will probably be pretty brutal.

I don't know... I'm actually a bit worried. With all the hype, the daily release of Couric interview soundbites, the lower and lower expectations...
If she sticks to talking points and shuts up otherwise, and is merely awful, this will be spun by everyone, including the "liberal" media pundits, as a slam dunk or home run.
I'm crossing my fingers, but I have a sick feeling that tomorrow we'll see headlines about how Palin's debate performance was better than anyone expected.

How can a woman who sems to know nothing in everey interview be the Vice President ? Why did they pick this person- because she was a right wing woman with some governing experience ?

I'm glad that none of the leaders running in the Canadian election right know are like this, even if I disagree with their ideas.

And I don't think you can be a Federalist if your're big on states rights.

I cannot revel in Palin's embarrassing performance. Yes, I dislike her--everything about her. But I also feel sorry for her. She's in so far over her head that it's just sad. I feel angry that she is the vice-presidential nominee, but my anger is not directed at her. She has been set up to fail. It's like when Bush selected Harriet Meyers for the Supreme Court. In both cases, the woman could have said no, but it was really the responsibility of the person in power to vet his candidate. And to think that the last time a woman took the debate stage was more than 20 years ago, and to compare that woman to this one....it's just a sad, sad day to be an American woman.

@Lisa and bittergradstudent: the problem is that if Ifill does "push for real answers" from Palin, or if Biden does make clear that Palin is uttering word salad of unrelated sentence fragments, the right will spin it as unfair "bias" and mean-spirited bullying.

I don't feel sorry for her at all. She's in over her head, yes, but she CHOSE to be there. Nobody forced her. We've had plenty of examples of ridiculous male politicians, and we do not feel sorry for them-- we wonder what the hell they're doing trying to make decisions for us. She's a strong woman; she does not need to be coddled.

Silly_feminist, I totally agree with you. I wasn't crazy about Biden at first either, but he's grown on me more and more (in spite of, or maybe because of, his insanity).

Sigh. I think Katie Couric is better qualified to be vice president.

I do appreciate Biden's work on VAWA, but didn't like his comment on Roe v. Wade at all. Fuck trimesters. First tell me what the government's "interest" is in my uterus and "protecting" the fetus to whom they want me to donate my body and organs and then we'll talk. Perhaps we could arrange something where kind, generous men could volunteer to donate their bodies and organs to save the precious fetuses.

Yeah, Audrey, what the hell is she talking about with the "I'm a federalist." deal? A federalist is not someone who supports states' rights and less centralized government. It's someone who supports STRONGER centralized government. The early 19th century Federalist Party wanted states to be "united" as a single nation under the Constitution and subordinate to the larger government.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/federalist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Party

Oh, that makes total sense. So women who want fair pay must be under the influence of lawyers, so we shouldn't give them fair pay. (Because a woman could never want fair pay on her own? I see this argument with abortion, too - jail the doctors, never the women, they don't know what they're doing. How stupid do they think we are?)

Sarah Palin, dude, you're an Antifederalist.

I am psyched for the debate tonight.

I cringed through the Obama-McCain debate and I'm afraid I'm going to have to scream through this one. I can't help but feel a little sorry for Palin; hell, I even feel a little sorry for Bush. They're terrible people but my internal sympathy meter can't help but rise when people who are so blatantly under-educated on such important issues get rightfully cornered.

That said, I hope Biden kicks her ass. As I'm sure he will.

For what it's worth:

What's so remarkable about Palin's failure to come up with another Supreme Court decision is that McCain has so frequently hammered "activist judges" and criticized many specific rulings including decisions this term. Palin herself criticized the Court's decision this term in the Exxon (punitive damages) case months back.

Biden fumbled when he justified Roe on the basis that it reflects public opinion. That's not a basis for constitutional law. He should have led with the right to privacy, which served him so well in attacking the Bork nomination two decades ago.

He also fumbled on the trimester stuff, which is taken right from the Roe opinion but no longer reflects the law since the 1992 Casey decision ushered in a mushy "undue burden" standard anytime prior to viability.

Also, in fairness to Palin, she's using "federalism" the way lawyers tend to use it, which weirdly enough *is* the opposite of the way everyone else uses it (e.g. The Federalist Papers, which argued for ratifying the Constitution to provide a stronger national goverment).