Ponderings on the Debate

I watched the vice presidential debate last week with a sense of confusion. I knew it would be a strange debate: an experienced senator of many years, an expert on foreign policy, debating someone who can't answer simple questions - like what magazines and books she reads.

What it turned out to be was a candidate who answered the questions with knowledge and experience, against another candidate who answered the questions in a rehearsed tone, often answering a completely different question altogether.

As it dragged on, I knew Sarah Palin was so practiced she would only answer questions that she felt like answering and would instead flow into a prepared speech that had nothing to do with the subject matter. It was comical at best. The same words used over and over again: maverick....reform...often completely out of context. Her folksy answers and down home cuteness, right down to winking at people, was ridiculous for a vice presidential debate and I can't believe people fell for it.

Yes, comical it was...until she really showed her cold side. This self-professed Christian and mother showed zero compassion when Joe Biden showed a vulnerable side with his heartfelt story that brought a tear to my eye. When he told of the loss he had experienced years ago of losing his first wife and daughter, and not knowing if his sons were going to make it, he choked up and had to catch himself. When done, there was no body language showing any sympathy from Governor Palin, no kinds words as simple as an "I'm sorry," or "That had to have been tough." Instead she showed how rehearsed she truly was and went right back into a prepared speech and ignored his heartfelt revelation altogether.

Her lack of intelligence, lack of qualifications, and total arrogance to all of it have been shown repeatedly over the last few weeks. But now she has shown a coldness that moved beyond all of it. How does a supposed Christian woman, mother of five, show so little feeling to a father who has lost a child and fears losing his other children after a horrific accident? Or was she just working so much on memorization that if she got off of it she would lose what little train of thought she had?

Once again, she was embarrassing to women when she could be making history in a great way. The cute act was actually very cold and unfeeling - and the experience act was just a memorized mess that refused to answer the questions, was unresponsive to anything around her, and mocked the whole process and the people who are truly qualified.