Will Biden try to pound Palin at Wash U?
ST. PAUL — The Oct. 2 vice-presidential debate at Washington University has gotten more compelling.
On the surface, it looks one-sided. Joe Biden has a world of foreign policy experience, not to mention all his Judiciary Committee work and two presidential campaigns, and will talk, talk, talk till somebody gives him the hook.
But should the Barack Obama campaign be worried?
Quite possibly, if Biden takes Sarah Palin lightly or becomes overbearing, dismissive or patronizing — all within the realm of possibility.
Republicans in St. Paul already are playing the expectations game — and maybe some mind games — in anticipation of the evening when Biden and Palin meet in St. Louis.
“When he starts talking and trying to bully her around some, I think there’s going to be a very interesting reaction,” said Charlie Bass, head of the Republican Main Street Coalition, an organization of GOP moderates.
“If I were an Obama strategist, I’d be fretting about how to keep Biden under control when he is dealing with Sarah Palin,” added Bass, a former congressman from New Hampshire.
Two years ago, in an Alaska gubenatorial debate with then-Gov. Frank Murkowski, Palin was asked if she was “a little too young and inexperienced for the job.”
She responded by portraying herself as an outsider and reciting a litany of accomplishments as mayor of the Alaskan town of Wasilla.
In St. Louis, look for a similar tact — and remember that not long after that debate, Murkowski was looking for work.
I looked at the rundown Si linked to, yet I don’t see what her big accomplishments are. It doesn’t seem to great a deal to eat mooseburgers or hunt bears. I am sure lots of Alaskans do the same thing. What has she done? They keep bringing up being against the nowhere bridge, but you very well know she was heavily in favor of it. We also now learn that she worked hard to secure 26 million dollars in earmarks for Alaska; McCain can’t be too happy with this. We also keep hearing how she was the mayor of a 7,000 person community, wow. I know mayors of much larger areas than this that have no business being a mayor let alone V.P. What this pick shows is that McCain goes by is gut in the most important decisions he makes, just like G.W. Bush. And we all know how great that turned out. McCain met her once in person after one time on the phone, took a walk and then offered her the job, as we see now he might have wanted to vet her a little more.
If you don’t believe anything else I list below you should be able to understand that the selection of Sarah Palin has turned this campaign upside down
On the Right: McCain’s pick has energized and pleased Republicans, particularly conservative ones. Yes, yes, there’s all sorts of people trying to say otherwise, usually by reading off emails purporting to be from disgruntled members of the GOP. Alas for them, McCain’s people reported that they received $3 million dollars in six hours yesterday, with a total haul for the day of $10.1 million for the weekend.
And the two of them drew over 18,000 pumped up people to a ball stadium in St Louis this weekend. Mid-week last week, before the announcement, we thought we’d be ‘lucky’ to get 10-12,000. More important in my mind were the hundreds and hundreds of people that stopped by the booth and signed up to volunteer.
I think that we need to take the money, and the people, more seriously than the emails.
On the Left: Did you think that the netroots were contemptibly nasty to Senator Clinton? Just wait. They’re already starting in on Palin, and it will not get any better, and the media will not even be slightly more genteel about it. The more they do it the more it will put the spotlight on her and as they go over the top… like attacking her new baby… it will only help her. The Baby Thing is only going to be the start. See the NYT this morning if you doubt me on this.
Now, here are some key points worth remembering:
The Obama camp is comparing their number 1 to our number 2. That speaks volumes.
Palin had been in elected office for 5 years before Obama ever got elected.
Palin resigned her earlier state office to protest corruption. Obama has never met corruption he did not embrace. (Cook Country, City of Chicago)
Palin has balanced family, municipal, and state budgets. Obama, at best, has balanced a family budget, but he needed Tony Rezko’s help. And his wife’s 300k salary… the one she got only after he got elected
Palin runs the largest state in the nation. Barack Obama runs for President – face it: both have held their highest office for the same two years… Obama has spend more than half of that time running for President Palin has spent it running her state government.
Sarah Palin did not run for President on her resume. Barack Obama did. -Barack Obama talks about reform. Sarah Palin reforms.
And again, the most important point is that the Obama campaign wants to, has to, compare Obama to Palin. Doing so is an admission that Obama should be their number 2 pick and Biden should be their number 1 pick.
I don’t think Biden should mention Palin’s DWI during the debates.
What would the hollier-than-thou Republicans be screaming if Chelsie got knocked-up in 1997 when she was 17 and single…It’s a family matter, right?….They wanted Bill Clinton’s head and impeachment when it was a family matter.
Hey, Phyllis Schafley…what do you think of your moral majority, family values candidate now?
Why didn’t McCain take Matt Blunt as his running mate? He’s been a Governor twice as long, is younger and just as cute.
Yes, two years as Governor of Alaska and several years as mayor of Wasilla trumps 35 years in the Senate and Chairman of the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees. I forgot we were counting experience in Republic years.
If ole JojoB tries to pound her
she might reach over and pull a hair plug out … ouch !!!
If you lefties really think she’s such a terrible choice for VP,
you ought to be bubbly & gleeful.
But no, still the same ole crabby sour pusses …
Okay, one final time, what has she accomplished with her wealth of executive experience. Let me help with what little I know: she was against a bridge she formally really, really wanted, she balanced a budget with the increase in oil revenues (glad I could help with that), she helped gat $26 million dollars in earmarks (McCain must love that), she did make it easier to hunt moose by plane. What else. Perhaps she did something wonderful in her time as mayor. I don’t want to hear about largest state stuff, that is a phony argument considering population and don’t give me more attacks on Obama, I’ve heard them all ad nauseum. Also, I am not comparing her to Obama, that is not fair, I would compare her to Biden, but I need to now about what she has done first. Let’s here the real meat, not that she has fished.
I’m wagering that this will be a non-issue. Ms. “Alaska First”, the seeker of congressional earmarks for Alaska, the VP candidate vetted so thoroughly (NOT) won’t even be around to debate Joe Biden on Oct. 2nd.
Between Obama picking the most rabid anti-gunner in the Senate and the media picking on Palin and her daughter, this stands to be the smack down of the century. The Democrats are poking a stick in the eye of middle America and it will all come to a head debate night. My suspicion, Biden won’t know what hit him.
I guess I don’t quite understand what the dissing of Scranton Joe is all about. The three senate types are said to have no executive experience. Being an executive means making decisions, and delegating the results to underlings to undertake. Have none of these Senators ever voted for a bill? Has none of them ever had a staff they had to oversee? Have they never had to provide some followthrough to a constituent?
That’s all executive ability.
Now, if you mean, how many of them actually had to execute someone, I suspect McCain may have had a gun in Vietnam, and Palin apparently gets great glee out of making things dead and bloody.
We’re tired of dead and bloody. Let’s elect people who make decisions and see they are carried out, rather than people whose decisions result in things being carried out because they no longer move under their own power.
Biden won’t have to pound sarah,she’ll do that herself when she starts talking. –And charlie bass,the republican head,I believe he and his buddy bush,are the ones who are bullies. The rich are good at that.