Getting political. Part 3

Last Thursday night I watched the vice-presidential debates between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Figures from Neilsen Media Research's preliminary figures have this debate being the most-watched vice presidential debate in history. 69.9 million American viewers tuned in for the only VP debate before the November election. This was 17.5 million more viewers than who watched John McCain and Barak Obama's first debate a few weeks ago.

Prior to the debate there was speculation if Sarah Palin was prepared for this large of an audiance. Some believe she had blundered in an interview with Katie Couric a few weeks ago. From what I could see there were no blunders. I could not bring myself to watch the full 90 minutes of the debate. I even wondered if "debate" was the right word to describe what I saw. It seemed more to me like both candidates had memorized a statement about each topic. Health care, the economy, gas prices, foreign policy, etc. Both chose to answer some questions directly and to shy around other questions, never really answering.

I was dissapointed with how quickly both candidates attacked their opponents. Barak Obama started his run for president by promising to run a positive campaign. He has completely lost track of his original plan. The first things out of Joe Biden's mouth were attacks on John McCain.

In most cases I felt like both candidates were saying exactly what they thought voters wanted to hear. I think they promise way more than they can accomplish and that there isn't integrity to what they are saying. Probably the most interesting thing to me was to watch reactions from news stations the following day. One news station took comments from both opponents and rated how truthful they were. Both candidates made statements that were truthful and statements that were completely false.

The website below does a great job of looking at both candidates critically and calling them on their lies.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/