The Hiller Instinct: The 'not' debate

"Nice to meet you," says Governor Palin.

"It's a pleasure," esponds Senator Biden.

"Hey can I call you Joe? asks Governor Palin.

"You can call me Joe," said Biden.

And she maintained that folksy style... "Get down to getting' business done for the people of America..." Palin said to make a sophisticated political point: "I may not answer the questions the way that the moderator or you want to hear.  But I'm gonna talk straight to the American people, and let them know my track record also."

She smiled and winked, and Joe Biden smiled back,  but there was no laughter in his assaults on John McCain...

"He's not a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table," Biden said forcefully and, talking about healthcare, he used McCain's own words against him: "Replace a 12-thousand dollar plan with a five thousand dollar check?  I call that the ultimate bridge to nowhere."

Their harshest exchange was over Iraq: "We'll end this war.  For John McCain there's no end in sight to this war. Fundamental difference. We will end this war," says Biden.

"Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq, and that's not what our troops need to hear today," Palin said.

I'll remember this as the "not" debate, as in, it was not what many expected; Sarah Palin was not embarrassed; Joe Biden was not a bully. The bottom line: John McCain needs to change the dynamics of the race, and this debate did not do it."

I'm Andy Hiller and that's my instinct.

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