US News
Stage is set for much-awaited Biden-Palin debate
Oct 3, 2008, 0:25 GMT
Washington - US vice presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden were preparing to take centre stage Thursday night in a highly anticipated debate barely one month before the November 4 general election.
The stakes are high for Biden and Palin to demonstrate both their own competence and to tout the best qualities of their running mates, as they face off for the only time in this election campaign.
Some 3,100 journalists have been accredited to cover the debate at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, and the 90 minute event is set to be broadcast by all major US television networks.
The focus in the run-up to the debate had been squarely on Palin, a one-term Alaska governor who was catapulted onto the national scene only weeks ago after being picked as Republican nominee John McCain's running mate.
By contrast, Biden, 65, a two-time former presidential candidate and Delaware senator for 36 years, was a well-known quantity when he was tapped in August by Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
For Palin, 44, the debate was her most important chance yet to convince the public that she was ready for the top job in the event something should happen to McCain, who at 72 would be the oldest president ever elected to a first term.
According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, only 35 per cent believed she had the experience necessary to be president, down from 47 per cent in early September. By comparison, 70 per cent believed Biden has the necessary experience.
For Biden, long one of the party's top minds on foreign policy as chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, the pitfalls of Thursday's debate were related more to over exposure.
Biden has a long reputation for making political gaffes on the campaign trail. The McCain campaign released a web video Thursday citing his biggest mistakes to date, including a comment that you could not walk into a US neighbourhood convenience store 'unless you have a slight Indian accent.'
Biden's most famous misstep dates back to 1987, when his first presidential candidacy collapsed after it was discovered that he had plagiarized parts of a speech by a British politician.
Yet despite being protected from the media by the McCain campaign, Palin's own gaffes in three recent interviews had provided much fodder for late-night comedians.
Her comments citing Alaska's proximity to Russia as foreign policy experience or confused answers on a 700-billion-dollar financial rescue plan have led some conservative commentators - who are supposed to be on her side - to publicly ask that Palin bow out of the race.
But aside from watching their words, both candidates were expected to square their own political perspectives with those of their running mates.
Biden will have to answer critics that argue his 36 years in Washington do not sit well with the 47-year-old Obama's message of change. Palin must answer for some conservative beliefs, such as a skepticism of the man-made causes of global warming, that do not square with McCain's own views.
The other factor hovering over the debate was that of gender. Palin would be the first ever female vice president, and Biden will have to avoid adopting 'a posture of being aggressive toward her or, worse, condescending,' said Bob Shrum, who helped John Kerry prepare for his 2004 presidential debates, in an interview to Newsweek.
Palin should exploit her more personal side, put herself forward as 'a likable, caring person who believes what she says,' said Stuart Stevens, who helped Republican Vice President Dick Cheney prepare for debates with Democrats Joe Lieberman and John Edwards in 2000 and 2004 respectively.
Given that dynamic, the debate may have its biggest impact on one- time supporters of Hillary Clinton, who lost the Democratic primary to Obama and was then passed over as his pick for vice president.
Biden, in one of his most famous gaffes of the current campaign, admitted last month that Clinton 'might have been a better pick than me.'
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Older Talkback
page: 1
you would have had hair plugs drilled into your brain.
at least he and I have brains, unlike you.
Joe Biden:
“I haven’t changed in 35 years so don’t look for me to change now.”
Barrack Obama for change.
Barrack won’t take my guns Biden.
I promise there will be no coal Biden.
Now who did not vet his running mate?
IMO: Sarah wins hands down. Don’t expect to hear that from the MSM.
Not holding my breath.
I give Gwen Ifill an F. Terrible job of moderating. This should be her last foray away from PBS.
Biden was shootin blanks. Worn out commentary. Generalized statements about what McCain voted against and what he voted for.
Zero Punch. I think Biden’s mission was twofold: Don’t blow it and Dont blow it.
He was on a short leash. This guys gaffes and skeletons are still fresh.
Governor Palin took it to him and he couldn’t come back at her because she has no insider shadow following her around. need to get her out there and drive her attitude home…she’s connecting with people.
Gwen Ifill is a pant load.
@If you were Biden.
at least he and I have brains, unlike you. '
Well, that was the caliber of the lousy, infantile rejoinders that hairplugs gave all evening, you and he both suck.
Great debate! I think Sarah won hands down. She kept Biden on defense a good deal of the time. Not only that, but BO and JB are still running against Bush and she called him on it.
Biden ends with a “God bless America” and a “God bless the troops” — the kind of thing the Christian-bashers would flog Sarah over.
Votes are up on drudge - nearing 60,000 votes, and Palin has it 75% to 23% (the other 2% is neither). Luntz focus group picks Palin as winner! check Rasmussen over the weekend.
I wonder how the Hillary supporters will view this.
'I wonder how the Hillary supporters will view this.'
It should have been her beating up Biden instead of Sarah Palin?
You say: 'you and he both suck.'
Wrong again, moron. I'll leave the sucking to you and the rest of the toe-tapping Republican'ts. By the way, go back to school and learn proper grammar. Your sentence structure sucks, just like your vacuous 'mind'.
'Wrong again, moron. '
Perhaps, something disgusting as you can't even give it away.
from the Lunatic Fringe Rah-Rah Club it appears, from reading news sources, that the real winner was Biden. The self-deluding right wing-nut headcases are so far out to lunch that it is amusing, to the Nth degree.
No way, a-hole, I'm not here to please you, so suck it up and shut the f*ck up, moron. The only disgusting thing here is you and your lack of intelligence.
'it appears, from reading news sources, that the real winner was Biden. '
LOL... Maybe at the asylums that you get your 'news' from you stupid lemming...
Biden also lied 14 times and showed he doesn't know the difference between Gaza and the West Bank:
Another absurdly wrong statement from Joe “Foreign Policy Expert” Biden, who very obviously does not know the difference between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank:
'Here’s what the president said when we said no. He insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, “Big mistake. Hamas will win. You’ll legitimize them.” What happened? Hamas won.
In tonight’s debate, Joe Biden claimed that Barack Obama never said he would meet unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
That was a blatant, shameless lie.
Here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1dSPrb5w_k
Biden is an idiot.
'I'm not here to please you,'
Not pleasing people is the only thing you excel at. Seriously, someone who is pathetic enough to be SP4's creepy internet stalker really doesn't have a place in this world.
You have got to be that Smiley D a-hole. Again, you got the wrong guy. I am not, as you say, 'SP4's creepy internet stalker.' So that is twice you got it wrong, dickhead. But, how does it feel to be a stalker, yourself? A stalker of SP4's stalker. Boy, have you got to be some sort of a royal f*ck-up. Is SP your little brother and you feel a need to protect him from all those 'bad' people out there? Or are you just some stupid sh*t? SP doesn't need your help, Mr Anal Retentive. Especially the help of someone who can't get it right. What an idiot you are. Crawl back into your mommy's vagina and come out when you have developed beyond the two cell stage.
You must be thrilled to get a little attention you pathetic loser.
..to have something to say. If you do not, run up out of the basement and ask one of your stepdaddies, either the latino, or the african american ones entertaining your mom, or even your other mommy, for something meaningful to contribute.
Ah, the Smiley D arsehole spouts his stupidity once again. No Canucks here, dickweed.
talking to yourself, again, I see. Why don't you go get some advice from you pig diddling daddy, on how to have something to say. Preferably it will be how to be on-topic.
...am your daddie...
page: 1
If I were BidenOct 3rd, 2008 - 00:52:12
I'd be packing a big gun. The ugly b*tch has rabies and might bite.
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