At the kitchen tables of Sarah Palin and Joe Biden

[jaderabbit]

In last night's VP debate, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin both set their hypothetical John and Jane Smiths "around the kitchen table" having difficult talks about the woes of the middle class. Having just made a pasta frittatta for dinner, I had food on the brain, and that got me thinking of the debate in food terms. What if, instead of the mini-

Comments

[clair_de_lalune]

You've made me hungry! *lol

[jaderabbit]

Sweety dislikes Palin more now. He thought the "her reward is in heaven" thing was a nasty thing to say about Biden's wife, considering his first one is already dead.

I don't know if Biden brought it up to be emotional. I think he brought it up because it illustrated his point. Palin was making such a point of understanding family hardship just because she's a mom, and he said--rather tactfully--that being a single dad was pretty hard, too. She doesn't have a monopoly on family difficulty. I think the fact that it made him emotional was just something he tried to conquer as it came.

[clair_de_lalune]

I vaguely remember her saying something about "reward" being in Heaven regarding teachers, implying that teachers don't get enough reward in life, I suppose. I don't recall that it was directed at Biden's wife, but, if so, I see how that might be interpreted as being tactless; although, I very much doubt she meant it to be nasty or hurtful.

--I don't know if Biden brought it up to be emotional.--

No, I don't think he brought it up to be emotional, either, since I don't think he wanted to show that kind of emotion.

[jaderabbit]

I agree that in this case, it was more out of cluelessness than nastiness. But I shudder to picture her talking to world leaders in that fashion.

Ah, point. We agree about Biden's position on the man-tears.

[cynodd]

Since the bar for Palin seems to have been set very low, and she didn't trip over it, that's a win for her. She did what she needed to do: sound folksy, talk semi-coherently, and convince Americans she is "one of them." Clearly Biden is the better debater, knows his stuff better, is more intelligent, and can answer a question better.

The problem is, that people are juding on "performance alone," and what seems to be important is whether or not Biden getting choked up was believable and whether or not Palin's winking was endearing, not whether or not she answers the actual question.

[jaderabbit]

And that worries me. I really don't think debates should start with handicaps. You show up, and you're persuasive or you're not. There really isn't a "most improved" award.

I've had media coaching, and I'm pretty sure that Palin was very rehearsed. She didn't stray from her talking points at all. In my book, that's not a good thing when she's supposed to be showing, among other things, that she can think on her feet.

[auros]

You'll have to come visit some night when we're making a frittata. :-)

[jaderabbit]

Which I misspelled all through the post, alas. But I feel so funny about editing them.

I do like frittata, provided they don't get tough. What do you use as your carby substrate?

[auros]

We don't always put a lot of carbs into it; we basically saute whatever veggies we happen to have around, and maybe some meat (we did one with a nice cured salami the other day, and we've used bacon before), and then top with grated cheese, pour beaten egg over it, let it set a little over the stove, then move to the broiler. If there are carbs in it at all, it's usually finely-cubed potato.

[jaderabbit]

Yum. Sounds like a nice alternative to omelettes.