Pizza, Wine and Sarah

So last evening after watering and checking the horses for the last time I lit a fire in the fireplace and sat down in my old lady recliner with a margherita pizza and a bottle of bordeaux. I was settling in to watch the VP debate with some anticipation. Mark plays tennis on Thursday nights, so I had the place to myself.

I will preface my comments with disclosure. I am progressive in my politics and life views, so I am not unbiased but I am a critical audience. I expected to have a lot to say at the TV, instead I spent the evening squirming in my chair. I've heard the accounts of the evening from the pundits and I don't know what they were watching but it's not what I was seeing. Sarah Palin made me squirm for several reasons; She was robotic, until the final 20 - 30 minutes, she was repeating rote statements sometimes accompanied with a wink or a nod and she really never answered the question. I honestly have never seen anything quite like this. I felt sorry for her, not angry. I also felt sorry for Joe Biden and Gwen Iffell (sp?) for the tough spot they were in. If Sarah Palin were a man or Hillary Clinton she wouldn't have been given such a huge pass on this. 

I can't work up a rant. And I'm not at all surprised that the talking heads are all saying she did better than expected, as not much was expected of her. The bar is so low here one can barely slip a feather under it.

I had a night to sleep on this and I still don't know what to say, other than is this the best John McCain could do? Have people become so accustomed to being spoon fed homilies they can't discern substance?  A quick line and a wink seems easily substituted for a reasoned, thoughtful response, maybe a response that doesn't sound as if it's being read from a cue card. OK, I'm done because I'm just going to ramble incoherently, sort of like what I saw last night.