Post-Veep debate analysis

Otherwise known as David Brooks is from Mars, and we’re from Venus.

I watched PBS. Brooks, in the post-debate wrap-up, first claimed Palin did as well as Biden, then claimed that Biden almost never mentioned Obama vs. how much Palin mentioned McCain.

David, you know that a good Veep candidate is an attack dog, and Biden was busy pinning the

Karen Fitzpatrick agrees that the “folksy” angle of Palin was overdone.

Michael Beschloss cries major foul on Palin for the “white flag of surrender” comment. That said, she may have been trying to provoke Biden; he smartly ignored it.

Beschloss said Biden looked much more human.

Oh, on one specific issue of the debate, Afghanistan:

Oh, per Talking Points Memo, Gen. David McKiernan (not McClellan, we’re not at Antietam Creek), says “Iraq is no Afghanistan. He goes into detail:

During a news conference yesterday, McKiernan described Afghanistan as “a far more complex environment than I ever found in Iraq.” The country's mountainous terrain and rural population, its poverty and illiteracy, its 400 major tribal networks and history of civil war all make for unique challenges, he said.

“The word I don't use for Afghanistan is 'surge,' ” McKiernan emphasized, saying that what is required instead is a “sustained commitment” to a counterinsurgency effort that could last many more years and would ultimately require a political, not military, solution.