Palin vs. Biden....

Well since I haven't blogged in five months I might as well jump on the bandwagon story of the day (at least until the Dow drops another 400 points).

Pundits, politicians, and the related ilk are all going to be arguing their side today. Republicans will say Palin won (or at least, that she didn't lose), and Democrats are going to say Biden was the clear winner. I don't think anyone really "wins" these debates, seeing as how a scorecard doesn't matter in the face of public opinion. But if the measuring stick is public opinion, post-debate polling seems to show that Biden won. That's all to be taken with a grain of salt, and is probably directly related to the rise 0f poll numbers for the Obama/Biden ticket overall.

If that is true, though, and Biden's substance did win over Palin's style, then we are finally seeing the payoff of what Obama has been speaking of since the early primaries. After sixteen years (at least that I can remember) of style, and posturing, and sound bites trumping substance, we as a country may have come full circle. The realization that the people in charge actually have to know what they are talking about rather than look like they know has been a long time coming in American politics. Unfortunately it's taken the loss of thousands of American lives, and trillions of American dollars to get us to that point.

In the end, this debate won't really change anything. But hopefully it will reinforce the growing notion that competence is once again a bare minimum requirement for the highest offices in the land.