Further Post-debate Remarks

A few things I wanted to talk about, now that we've had time to think about the debate:

First of all, Palin said 21 things that were either misstatements, things that were accidentally alack of fact, or outright lies, as reported by MSNBC. That's a non-fact every 4 1/2 minutes! Among her statements alack of fact: It's McKiernan, not McClellan who is the General in Afghanistan, she was against divesting funds for Sudan from the Alaska budget (umm...this would be called a lie), troops in Iraq are not down to pre-surge levels.

Second, Palin sounded (and acted) astoundingly like George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004-even using his campaign slogan, "A reformer with results" in one of her responses! She even did the winking-which Bush did in the town-hall debate in 2004! I'm surprised that she didn't start going off on how being governor was "hard work" or saying that she's a "compassionate conservative."

Third, Palin's record shows that she's definitely not what one would perceive to be a maverick (By the way, next feature post: On Maverick Status): she was an alumna of GOPAC, the Gingrich-nurtured PAC whose mission is, "the premier training organization for Republican candidates for elected office." Not exactly a beacon of change when her political education comes from the home of GOP spawn.

Finally, some great polling data from two sources I'm going to include in the "Favorite Links" section of The 'Pad: electoral-vote.com reports that, if put in an Electoral College format, Obama beats McCain in a landslide, 338-185 (with the state of North Carolina now tied), and a Senate of 58-42 Democratic, and FiveThirtyEight.com reports that Obama leads the Electoral College, 333.2-204.8, that Obama has a winning percentage(probability that he will win the election), of 84.4%, and that the Senate will have a composition of 58-42, as well. Obama has an 68% chance of winning Florida, an 80% of winning Virginia, an 87% chance of winning PA, a 67% of winning Ohio, and an 89% chance of winning Michigan, while the possibility of an unheard-of North Carolina win is 50-50.

Before I end, here are some posts that will be coming soon on Notepad:

-Senate Swami: Predictions in the hot Senate races this November
-On Maverick Status
-Campaign 2008 Spotlights on John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, and Joe Biden
-On Our Duty to Impeach the President
-And, of course, pre- and post-debate coverage of the final two debates between Senators McCain and Obama(I'll try to do a live-blog for the final debate at Hofstra)