When Joe Met Sarah

Round 1: Forget the bailout, what's up with the bailout process?

Ifill, not the most competent moderator in the world, opens by saying that the House passed a bailout bill this week. She corrects herself.

Biden says that he and Obama will fundamentally change the focus of economic policy to the middle class. Palin says you should measure economic health by asking people on the sidelines of a youth soccer game what they think about their financial positions.

Round to Biden

Round 2: Biden, how will you solve the partisan rancor in Washington?

Biden says that some of his best friends are Republicans! But going back to the first question, he hits McCain for saying that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

Palin says that she and John McCain are mavericks and that John McCain has made a career of reaching across the aisle.

Round to Biden

Round 3: Whose fault is this sub-prime mess, anyway?

Palin says that predatory lenders and greedy Wall Streeters are at fault and that Joe Sixpack and Hockey Moms need to band together to say "never again" by taking personal responsibility and living within our means. She uses "heck" and "darn" in the same answer.

Biden says that Obama warned about the sub-prime problem two years ago. And that McCain is beholden to deregulation, while Obama will introduce all sorts of new regulation in our economy. He demagogues the free market. These, evidently, are selling points.

Round to Biden

Round 4: Palin and McCain want to take health insurance away from people and make them poorer. Discuss.

Biden gamely avoids Ifill's ridiculous question in favor of assuring viewers that Obama absolutely won't raise taxes on people making under $250,000. Palin says she doesn't like Biden's redistribution of wealth principles and then makes the smart point that businesses will be more heavily taxed.

Ifill, her voice dripping with disdain, goes back in, asking, "Governor, are you interested in defending Sen. McCain's healthcare plan?" Palin says yes and then responds with details of McCain's proposal.

Round to Palin

Round 5: What programs will fall under the axe to pay for the bailout?

Biden says that foreign aid will have to slow down--one assumes that the rest of the world will be happy to accept President Obama's smiling face in lieu of greenbacks. Palin says that Biden and Obama voted for the energy bill that created the tax breaks for Big Oil and that as governor, she had to then whip those Big Oil companies back into line.

Round to Palin

Round 6: Gov. Palin, Congress passed a bill last year making it harder for poor people to declare bankruptcy; McCain voted for that bill, would you have?

Palin says yes and that John McCain was one of the people calling for the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, but that others in Congress wouldn't listen.

Ifill then says to Biden, you also voted against the bill while Obama voted for it--why were you so wrong? Biden says that he saw the glass as half full while Barack saw it as half empty. Also, that Obama wrote a letter to the Treasury warning of the coming sub-prime meltdown.

On redirect, Palin jumps straight back to energy issues.

Round to Biden

Round 7: What are the causes of climate change?

Further annoyed with Palin, Ifill says she's happy to talk about energy issues--by which she means global warming. But she doesn't want to talk about what to do about global warming--she just wants to know what the candidates think it's caused by. Palin says that Alaska is the closest to the leading edge of observing the effects of climate change and that she's not one to ascribe the cause of every single effect to man's activities. She says, however, that she doesn't want to argue about the causes, but about how to find solutions. It's the best she's been all night.

Ifill, growing impatient turns to Biden and asks him what he thinks is true and what he thinks is false about the causes of climate change--just to make sure we all get the point. Biden says that he believes that global warming is man-made. For the first time it seems possible that Ifill could win this thing for Palin.

Round to Palin