1 Boring Old Man

Palin Takes On A New Foe: Her Image

She subverted the whole purpose of the exercise by merely repeating the key points of her running mate, Sen. John McCain, and ignoring questions that called for more specific answers.

People who came to the debate loving Sarah Palin probably went away from it loving her as much as ever. People who came to the debate hoping to see a fiasco, to see Palin make colossal gaffes, had to have been disappointed. She may have swayed a few "undecideds" her way with her mom-next-door demeanor and seemingly indomitable smile. There were mistakes here and there, but they were mostly minor — but then, Palin’s answers in the debate were more about herself than about the policies of McCain or George W. Bush or even the country’s current economic crisis.

Palin scolded the Democrat from Delaware if he dared to mention the name of Bush, the similarities between Bush and McCain – in terms of philosophy, voting record and approach to foreign policy – or even to acknowledge the existence of the past eight years of Republican rule. "There you go again, pointing backward again," she said to Biden, imitating Ronald Reagan’s famous "there you go again" rejoinder to Jimmy Carter in a 1980 presidential debate…