In a matter of hours, the 1st and only vice presidential debate of this election cycle will take place, pitting Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) against Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware).
Analysis is rampant throughout the standard media outlets (MSNBC, CNN, FOX, etc), as well as left and right wing blog empires (DailyKos, FreeRepublic). I suppose the attention has the feel of left-wing bias to it, as many of the expectations swirl around whether or not Gov. Palin will screw up. This is a bit of a generalization, but only so much as your standard media outlets constantly fail to admit that they themselves are the ultimate purveryors of over-generaliztation in this election cycle. Even I have to admit, the focus surrounding Biden is so slim that one might even question whether or not his role in tonight's debate has any merit at all.
My fear of course, is that he is going to be sent out in an effort to play defense: to quiet the Palin storm, and assure millions of uninformed Americans that Sen. Obama does indeed have the national security chops it takes to be commander in chief during an era, which up until a week or two ago, has completely been dominated by talking points dealing with terrorism, foreign policy, and of course the issue which Democrats have been political sodomized for years by, patriotism.
I, for one, have a distinctly undemocratic (thats democratic as in democracy, not party affiliation) opinion about the debate tonight: I really hope it has little effect. I want to make clear that most of my political opinions are placed in the context of how the media treats and portrays the candidates and issues, not how I'd actually like things to be. Frankly, I see a very small margin with which Biden can actually boost Obama, versus the potential spin boost a Palin performace can give McCain. I should also mention that if Palin does significantly help McCain, it will probably be by simply railing on Obama. Such is life. If this debate does gain any lasting firepower, it will probably not be because Joe Biden blows everyones socks off.
Two precedents to keep in mind:
1. The last 2 vice presdential debates did nothing positive for democrats. In 2000, a relatively low-key guy from a random western state (Dick Cheney), played the role of causal, classy, yet astute politician, ultimately rendering Joe Lieberman to complete mediocrity and starting the whirlpool which eventually led to latter to completely lose his mind and try to damage the United States Senate as much as a boring, mediocre politican possibly could. Even I, as a young, nieve 15 year old, kind of thought Cheney at the time came off as a low key moderate politican with some charisma and class, a description that now would be labeled as surrealist at best. It seemed like the country was completely unaware he had served as Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense during the Ford and elder Bush administrations, respectivily (2 presidents that even die hard conservatives dont rank as their all time favorite leaders). In 2004, the Democrats brought young, zesty "populist" John Edwards to the table, only to watch him fall without grace in front of a sitting vice president who hardly ever appeared on TV in 4 years, even though it was widely known that he was at the least, responsible for the greatest foreign policy disaster of all time, and at the most, the puppet master of the 1st Bush Administration term. Expectation were set low for the Republican (Cheney), and he responded with a mixture of lies and post-debate spin. This does not pose well for Biden.
2. Joe Biden screws up all the time. Don't worry about this one. Biden knows it, the Obama campaign knows it, and it is not at all a secret weapon for Palin. In all honesty, I believe this to be one of the, if not the best run Democratic campaigns of all time, and to put it bluntly, they don't make mistakes, and they're ready to win. These are not attributes that could be easily attached to the Gore and Kerry campaigns. Biden will be fine, it may just not matter at all. Even if Palin comes off as completely uninformed and even hostile, there's enough spin to somehow turn that into a criticism of how Obama is sexist. Delaware is going blue, Alaska red, but maybe we'll get lucky and 3 million voters in Ohio will fall in love with the Senator with hair blugs and a bit of experience. Don't count on it.
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