Poly Ticks

Matt and I watched the last half-hour of the vice-presidential debate last night. Here's my take-aways:

* Palin said, "My kids is public school participants." Matt and I were so floored at this failure of elementary grammar that we actually paused the TiVo and rewound it to make sure we'd heard that correctly. I mean, seriously? Basic subject-verb agreement? I knew they were ragging on Obama for actually letting people know he was educated, but isn't this just a bit reactionary? Next thing you know, she'll be saying things like, "It needs done."

Edit: The two transcripts of the debate I found online pulled this as, "My kids as public school participants." Which is not quite as egregious, but still doesn't make a lot of sense. My point stands.


* Oh, and Palin's "shout out" to her brother's elementary school class? Utterly lacked class.

* I was disappointed, if not surprised, that Biden wouldn't stand up for gay marriage. Which is not to say that I wasn't amused by how flustered Palin got when she tried to tell us how tolerant she was. Am I the only one who got the impression that she was trying to convince us she was tolerant on the issue because she knows some people who disagree with her?

* Palin can't pronounce "nuclear" correctly, either. I swear, I'm so tired of hearing "nucular" that if I had been a fence-sitter, that alone would have decided me. (And you thought picking a candidate based on a single issue was rash!)

* Palin's talking-points were not only repetitious, but she never even rephrased them, so they came across as recited from memory rather than presented from conviction. I know candidates going into a debate are coached and drilled in advance, but there were at least three times that I heard her use phrases and statements so similar, so close together, that I had to look up to see if Matt had rewound the TiVo again.

* I was impressed that both candidates refrained from mud-slinging and cheap shots... right up until Palin dragged Biden's dead wife into it. I was impressed with his response, too -- whether calculated and coached or not, it was beautiful -- cool and gracious with just the faintest undertones of disgust that she would stoop so low and remembered grief.