Apparently debate rules don't matter

I have been baffled at the mainstream media's response to Gov Palin's debate performance. Apparently since she didn't giggle and squeak, apply make-up while talking, or simply fall down on stage, she gets to be hailed as a close-second competitor.

It's true that both candidates made errors in fact, but Palin was simply not following the rules of the debate game. Since she openly admitted to this, we are all supposed to think she is shrewd? How about being critical of a potential world leader? Does she know anything about Israel, just one topic she skipped over handily. Where was the nerve of the moderator?

Imagine any other male candidate in Palin's place delivering her lines. Would Evan Bayh have been hailed as a close-second finisher? He would have been lambasted in the press for the remainder of his ruined career. Why is the media so quick to give a US Governor such a huge grading curve in such a critical election year? If she is unable to address critical issues now, then what should we expect later when the pressure is real and the consequences severe?

Joe Biden needs to read Harm de Blij's book, Why Geography Matters. Biden seems to believe that millions of years of earthly history prior to mankind's existence can be ignored as long as we focus on the past 200 years. Earth has undergone global warming and cooling many times before we existed, and will continue to do so no matter what we do. If he wants to say that we are harming our environment or that we are likely hastening the current warming trend, OK; but to say that mankind has caused global warming is just rubbish. If the next cooling trend comes while we are all still here, I wonder how quickly all of the so-called experts on climate change will suddenly focus their claims using real global climate data? We are in an interglacial period currently that is on the verge of shifting from warming back to cooling. No one can say exactly how long these time periods will last, but they have been happening since the birth of the planet.