If by "Washington speak" you mean "explaining things that aren't simple black-and-white issues." Biden failed to provide any ridiculous "voted for it before etc." constructions, so Palin had to try to pin Kerry's gaffe on Biden, and then tried to pull Reagan's line, and it just didn't work.

I thought Biden was pretty clear on how he voted; most Dems back then failed to understand how untrustworthy W was. Drives us crazy, but he explained it clearly.

actually, Biden is just about the only Senator for whom this was not 'washingtonspeak', he was literally, actually describing his position. he was very skeptical of the war, he co-sponsored the Biden-Luger amendment, he demanded concessions and statements from Bush that the AUMF wouldn't be used as a delcaration of war. he walked that walk in a way no other Democrat did. Hillary Clinton trying to make the same case doesn't pass the smell test - she voted against Biden-Luger, and her stated reservations were mere window dressing which never predicted the inevitable chaos in Iraq as Biden did and which never addressed what was flawed about the fundamental concept of invading and occupying Iraq, as Biden did.