WASHINGTON: Although the financial bailout debacle has hoarded the spotlight for over a week, but the political front is now shifting to St. Louis, Missouri, where the vice-presidential nominees, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska will participate in their only debate tomorrow.
The vice presidential candidates are a study in contrasts.
One candidate is highly experienced, while the other is a relative novice. One is a new star in the political sky, while the other is a bit of an old hat.
In a nutshell, the focus of tomorrow’s debate will be on whether Ms. Palin, the Republican nominee, can display enough command of the issues to convince voters that she is qualified to take over as vice president in January.
And if Biden, the Democratic nominee, will avoid gaffes and exhibit enough self-control to keep him out of Republican campaign attack commercials.
If last week’s presidential debate was any indication — in which one out of three American households tuned in to watch — millions will be watching the debates.
For Palin, after a brilliant debut at the Republican National Convention and a speech that electrified the delegates and the country, she is now struggling in her second act — as a candidate trying to persuade uncommitted voters that she is prepared to be vice president of the US.
Palin draws huge crowds on the campaign trail, but reporters complain that she is sealed in a protective cocoon.
Reporters who have been with her since McCain chose her as his running mate say they can’t even get close enough to yell a question. Since the Republican National Convention nearly a month ago, she has done only six events on her own, two of them in Alaska. More often than not, she appears with John McCain as the warm-up act — and a very good one at that. Most days, Palin makes only one public appearance, if that. Fundraisers have been scrapped. And in the 10 days leading up to Thursday’s debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden, she had only one major public appearance, which was with McCain. The campaign did agree to allow Palin to do a long interview with Katie Couric of CBS News. The bumpy interview became a punch line on late-night comedy shows and led many to question whether she is qualified to lead the country. [http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/09/palin_obama_mcca... ]
A number of conservative columnists also have publicly turned against her, or criticized McCain for choosing her, including George Will, David Brooks and Kathleen Parker, who wrote a column entitled: “She’s Out of Her League.”
Polling suggests – even amongst Republicans – that the number of Americans who think she is not fit to be president has increased since her introduction to the country last month.
However, if Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is not saying much on the campaign trail, Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden may be saying too much — or, at least, not always thinking about what he says before he opens his mouth.
Biden has drawn little attention in recent weeks, crowded out of the media spotlight -- first by Palin and now by the financial meltdown.
Biden often travels with fewer than a dozen reporters, and even his aggressive attacks on McCain have generated little attention in the national news. Although Obama aides say that he often makes the front pages of local newspapers in the cities he visits, and that’s what’s most important.
Introducing Sen. Barack Obama at a rally last Sunday, Biden said:
“John McCain said he’d follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell. Well, let me tell you something: President Barack Obama will follow him to where he lives and then send him to hell.”
Biden’s latest ad-lib drew laughter and cheers, but has caused many Democratic observers to note that Biden’s freewheeling style has not always served him well.
He raised eyebrows when he recently suggested that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would have been a better choice as Obama’s running mate.
As for Palin, the McCain campaign appears to be leaving nothing to chance. She will spend three days in debate preparation at McCain’s vacation compound in Arizona, and is practicing for the debate with Steve Beigun, a former staff member of President Bush’s National Security Council; Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s chief foreign policy aide; Mark Wallace, a deputy campaign manager for Pres. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign; and Ms. Wallace, who was a communications director in the Bush White House.
“This debate will probably determine her political persona for the rest of the campaign,” Saul Anuzis, the Republican chairman of Michigan, told reporters.
Most Republicans are hoping Americans will think along the lines of a recent Los Angeles Times blogger, who noted: “Gov. Sarah Palin is so popular that ‘if she doesn’t drool or speak in tongues, many millions… will be impressed’ during the vice-presidential debate.”
