I have to give Joe Biden a lot of credit. Palin was a formidable opponent-- chirpy, perky, cynically nasty, on talking points. But Joe cut right through and kept going after John McCain.
Then, when she brought up children and hockey moms, Joe responded as a single father, and, holding back tears, his heart came through. Palin didn't skip a beat, didn't notice and ignored Joe's moment of pain. That may have been the most powerful moment of the debate, when it came through loud and clear to all the Moms, all the widows and widowers and parents who'd lost children, that Palin was a lot of fluff, with no stuff and no heart.
As Joe said, the rest was prologue.
The debate was never something Joe was expected to win, but he did. Sure, McCain's supporters will continue lying about the debate as they've lied about so much, but America saw. Independents and undecideds saw. Even some Palin supporters surely saw. And Joe Biden did the unexpected-- he won the debate by being disciplined, staying focused on the target-- McCain-- and unintentionally, by just being himself, and showing his heart and almost his tears, he shredded Sarah Palin.
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