The Political Debates...

At 9:00pm EST, I'll be tuning into the political debate.

No, not the 2008 Canadian English-Language Leader's Debate. I'm tuning in to watch Joe Biden and Sarah Palin have at each other.

(Warning: What follows isn't the type of balanced, nuanced, well-reasoned advocacy I usually like to engage in when I discuss politics. If you can't handle unapologetically aggressive, partisan diatribes, just stop reading now. Click here. You'll be happier. Trust me.)

I'm going to be watching the U.S. Vice-Presidential Debate because I want to see if Sarah Palin can pull off a reasonable performance, or whether she just continues the utter descent into Miss South Carolina territory that started with her much-maligned CBS interview with Katie Couric. If you haven't seen it, I've imbedded part of it below. When it first came out, Dave sent me the link, with just a one-word commentary: "Ouch".



As for the debate, I'm not going to lie. I'm hoping for a complete implosion. I'm not sure how she can be any worse than she was during her chat with Couric, but if there's any possibility that she could be more awkward, more rambling, more obviously trying to bullshit her way through topics she obviously has done no homework on, I want to see it.

I'm an unabashed Barack Obama supporter -- which shouldn't be surprising since I'm firmly planted in the liberal commie pinko side of the political spectrum. But there was a time I could have stomached a John McCain victory. For one thing, he was pretty much the most moderate Republican candidate the party could have picked. And he has a history of pissing off the far-Right, which is always a plus in my books.

All of that (very-grudging) good-will went right down the toilet when he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. Not only do I see her as a politically cynical choice, designed to pick up any of the female vote that was still pissed that Hillary lost the Democratic nomination, but she represents the worst parts of the Right -- the Evangelical, socially-conservative, provincial wing of the Republican Party that advocates exactly those policy issues that stick most in my craw: the politicisation of science, intelligent design in biology classrooms, legislation against gay marriage.

That being said, I thought it was a astute choice by the McCain campaign. Her performance at the Republican National Convention was solid, energising the base. I looked on in horror. And I couldn't get over the hypocrisy of it all. Up to that point, McCain's main line of attack against Obama was his lack of experience. He had a valid point. But then to suggest that somebody who had spent barely two years as the governor of Alaska, as well as some time as mayor of some podunk Alaskan town was remotely qualified to potentially succeed to President of the United States? Please.

The choice of Palin also seemed to mark a shift in the tone of the McCain campaign. Once the "maverick", "straight-talk", "honourable" candidate, John McCain has now sold out to the Republican political machine that has given eight years of President Bush. I've been completely revolted by the utter misrepresentation of Obama's record and policy platform. For example:



It's just sleazy. Especially when one takes into account that the legislation in question was designed to educate children to guard them against pedophiles and sexual exploitation. Maybe that's just politics, and one has to expect politicians to lie to the electorate. But I'd prefer if they weren't lied to so blatantly.

And so I'm hoping that Palin gets buried.

I want my schadenfreude.

Edit:

I thought the debate went relatively evenly. Both candidates got in their jabs and made their points. Might have to give Palin the win just because expectations were so low going in -- all she really had to do was not fall flat on her face.

Biden nearing tearing up when talking about his experiences as a single father, caring for his two sons after the car crash that killed their mother (as a counter-point that Palin would be better equipped to empathise with the problems of mothers and families) was poignant if it was a natural reaction, and a master-stroke if it was planned.