ST. LOUIS – Sarah Palin used folksy language, winks, smiles and sharp elbows to try to put seasoned rival Joe Biden on the defensive in last night’s vice-presidential debate.
“It’s so obvious that I’m a Washington outsider and I’m someone who’s just not used to the way you guys operate,” Palin said after Biden answered a question about Iraq.
“You voted for the war and now you’re against the war,” she said.
“Americans are craving that straight talk. If you voted for it, tell us why you voted for it.”
Biden called GOP presidential candidate John McCain the “odd man out” for refusing to accept a timetable for a troop withdrawal, while Palin called a timetable “a white flag of surrender in Iraq” at a time when victory is “within sight.”
But Biden pushed back hard, aiming his fire at Palin’s running mate.
“John McCain voted against funding for the troops,” Biden said, noting that McCain voted against a Democratic war-funding bill that included a timetable to withdraw troops.
Palin – showing the feisty side she bragged about at the GOP convention, when she likened herself to a pit bull in lipstick – slammed Barack Obama for voting against a bill to provide troop funding.
She hit Biden for defending his running mate on the issue, “especially with your son in the National Guard” – a reference to Biden’s son, Beau, who is scheduled to fly to Iraq with his National Guard unit today.
Palin, too, has a son serving in Iraq.
From the outset at last night’s debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Palin tried to turn her relative inexperience next to Biden, a 35-year Senate veteran, into an asset.
“Go to a kids’ soccer game on Saturday and turn to any parent on the sideline, and I’ll betcha you’re gonna hear fear in that parent’s voice,” she said, speaking of the economic crisis.
Biden got his own jabs in on the economy.
Mocking McCain’s recent statement that the “fundamentals” of the economy are strong, Biden said, “That doesn’t make John McCain a bad guy, but it does point out he’s out of touch.”
Although she jabbed hard at Obama throughout the night, Palin was deferential at times.
“Can I call you Joe?” she asked when the two first shook hands, in a comment picked up by a microphone.
“I do respect your years in the United States Senate, but I think Americans are craving something new and something different,” she told Biden at one point.
If opponents were hoping for Palin to do something embarrassing or outrageous, they didn’t get it, although they got to see plenty of vintage Sarah.
“Darn right it was the predator lenders,” she said, assessing blame in the mortgage crisis.
After Biden delivered one of his most stinging attacks on the McCain, tying him to President Bush, Palin shot back, “Say it ain’t so, Joe – there you go pointing backwards again.”
Biden tried to keep his fire on McCain, not Palin.
“He has been no maverick on the things that matter to people’s lives,” Biden said, after Palin repeatedly called herself and McCain mavericks.
Biden, with far more foreign-policy experience than his running mate, slashed at McCain’s war position after Palin trumpeted the troop surge in Iraq.
“Let’s get straight who has been right and who has been wrong,” Biden said.
“God love him, but he’s been dead wrong on the fundamental issues of the war. Barack Obama’s been right.”
Palin’s biggest task was to try to recover after struggling in TV interviews, while Biden had to avoid coming off as patronizing.
“”Biden, who has a reputation for gaffes, committed a few slips of the tongue, such as when he said Iran was close to Obama, as if his running mate were a country in the Middle East.