“I told you so!”

“You did not!”

“Yes, I did!”

“It never happened.”

“Yes, it DIIIIIDDD!! It did, it did, it did!!”

Believe it or not, this exchange did not take place between two under-five-year-old siblings in front of my cash register. It is taking place between the staff of two of America’s best-known politicians.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/09/rove-calls-biden-liar-bush-aides-challenge-vps-boasts/

Vice President Joseph Biden claimed, on two occasions, to have privately (or semi-privately) spoken with former President George W. Bush during Bush’s tenure in the White House and was, shall we say, candid about his feelings on the Iraq War and general policy.

Meanwhile, former Bush aides are claiming that the two occasions never took place.

My big question: so friggin’ what?

I look at the exchanges, and I chuckle. I know that former President Bush is a good sport, and he has a good sense of humor (if not always the quickest tongue). I also know that Vice President Biden is blunt, clever, and (based on what I know of his career) more-than-less genuine. The two exchanges strike me as completely plausible. I would believe that the two men might, indeed, have met based on Biden’s experience in the Senate and Bush’s good nature.

If the exchanges didn’t happen, then the Vice President exaggerated a story or two to make a point. Big deal. Who among us hasn’t done that? Granted, it may seem a bit unprofessional for the Vice President of the United States to employ this particular storytelling technique, but, like any politician, statements given by him must be taken with a grain of salt.

Now, my regular readers may notice a disproportionate amount of slack cut towards Vice President Biden even going back to the VP debates during the campaign. That’s because, simply put: I like Joe Biden. I will readily admit that, although I may completely disagree with him on numerous issues, I am able to follow his logic and generally respect his opinion. The Vice President remains one of my favorite currently-serving Democrats. That’s my little disclaimer.

I can’t claim to speak for former President Bush, but I can’t help but think that he finds this whole thing absurd. In the grand scheme of things: who gives a damn who said what, when? This feud needs to end. It was stupid for it to ever begin. If the Vice President invented a story, then he was merely making a point and keeping audiences interested. If it actually happened, former Bush staffers are having a bad reaction to the idea that they didn’t know every little detail of what happened over the course of an eight-year period.

Guys, it’s time to move on and get to governing. Let’s let this media-exaggerated feud die while I still respect both of you.  

Wow. THAT was a debate. I think I enjoyed that debate more than any exchange between politicians in a very long time. Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin were very much equally matched. I have to commend them both. I took 6 ¼ pages of notes before 9:10 PM central time (a little over an hour into the debate) before I had to stop. My hand was too tired.

I’ll start with Sen. Biden’s strengths. He is infinitely stronger in a debate than Sen. Obama. Unlike the ticket’s top, Biden has the benefit of specifics and strong points. Where Obama regurgitates talking points, Biden can emphasize specific beliefs and particular points to highlight what his views for action in 2009 forward include.

Biden did, amusingly, look at Palin with almost admiration while she answered, specifically in the early parts of the debate. Biden came off as all business. He was direct, strong, and had logic to back up his positions. Even while I disagreed with him on a great many things, I understood and respect where he came from. He connected to me, a staunch Republican, on that level.

Palin’s strengths were two-fold. One: she made no gaffes. At all. She was factually prepared, honest, and didn’t fumble anything. Two: she was human. The woman who wowed America at the RNC came back in full force tonight. She spoke directly to the American people. She came off as Biden’s antithesis: folksy, often funny, and dare I say cute. She managed to achieve a balance that Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro never could: she was strong, intelligent, and feminine at the same time. Unlike many women in politics, she was unafraid to be wholly a woman and wholly a leader. I applaud that.

Weaknesses are harder to come by. Neither candidate really fouled anything up at a totally noticeable level. The biggest criticism I have goes to Palin: early on, she wanted to keep answering the energy question over and over. Biden was almost three questions ahead of her at that point, and that came close to hurting her. Fortunately, it caused no lasting damage, and I, for one, was over it one question later. Biden had more problems with actual facts, such as his previous statements on coal power; but a casual observer would likely think that Biden did fine.

I will do a follow-up piece to this one on fact-checking specifics. But here, I want to focus on the big picture. While I thought that John McCain won the first Presidential debate—albeit by a slim margin—and articulated that point in my school’s newspaper, I have to say, in all honesty and fairness, that Joe Biden came out just a hair ahead tonight.

Don’t misunderstand me. I love Governor Palin, and I think she did absolutely excellent tonight. But Biden had a more professional air, which lends itself to perceived credibility. What I’ve felt about Biden for a very long time is that he’s a remarkably liberal person who breaks all the liberal rules of presentation. He comes off like many conservatives do; more concerned with facts and his own logic than the emotion and “bleeding-heart” elements that usually drive liberals. Obviously, Biden did make factual errors in his performance, but he nevertheless had the aura that can usually only be controlled by conservative thought.

Palin’s personality and conviction won her some friends tonight, and it reminded me why I like her. But her answers lacked depth, which unfortunately drew contrast from Biden’s experience and argumentative brawn.

Congratulations to Joe Biden on his very, very, very narrow victory tonight. And congratulations to Sarah Palin for blowing your first National debate out of the water. Both candidates gave a stellar, fast-paced, and outright entertaining performance tonight. I know most of the pundits are against me tonight, but these are my immediate impressions.

UPDATE: The follow-up piece mentioned above has been cancelled. I feel that the issue had been covered ad-nauseum, and that most rational-minded Americans will agree that Biden won on presentation/appearance of knowledge, and that Palin won on actual facts. Biden made, I believe 14 factual errors to Palin's 6 or 7. Our gal won there, but the bar should have been higher.