Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Palin/Biden Debate Advice

OK. So the VP debate is staring us in the face. Here's how I see it.

(1) This is Sarah Palin's absolute last chance at any sort of redemption. Frankly, I think the damage she's already done to herself with her atrocious softball interviews, coupled with the damage inflicted on her by the sexist handling of her by the McCain campaign, is probably unfixable at this point; but she can at least resuscitate herself to "likable enough" again. But having one decent showing is not going to be enough to remove the stigma that on balance she's simply grossly unprepared and unqualified to be anywhere near the White House at this point.

(2) Joe Biden needs to focus his responses on McCain and try to ignore engaging Sarah Palin directly. He should let Gwen Ifill do her job. Also, Biden needs to keep his comments brief and to the point. He needs to control his penchant for bloviating. If anything, the only thing he should do to engage Sarah Palin is to try to redirect his answers via follow-up questions for Gwen Ifill to then handle. (i.e. If he's asked about NATO, for instance, Biden should give his specific answer and then end by asking something like: This is what the Obama/Biden administration will do; but I'm just not sure what the McCain campaign thinks about how something like Radovan Karadzic's war crimes trial will impact NATO members' alliances." And then let Gwen Ifill ask Palin: "Well what does the McCain campaign think about this?") And then we could watch Palin crash and burn. Biden should frame his answers in such a way that will make Sarah Palin hang herself.

That's my rushed two cents on giving some debate advice. Let's see how it Palins out. (Oops! I mean "pans" out!) ;-)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great advice! Hope Joe does what you suggest!