Listen for Joe Biden and Sarah Palin to say these things tonight

Well, we probably won't get to know much about Wayne Root and Matt Gonzalez during tonight's vice presidential debate in St. Louis. That's because the vice presidential running mates of libertarian Bob Barr and contrarian Ralph Nader are prohibited.

Too risky for the two major parties to admit nobodies who might say something disturbing or challenging.

So we'll have to settle for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican, and Delaware Democrat Sen. Joe Biden. The only thing they have in common are sons on Iraq military duty; Palin's son Track arrived last month and Biden's son Beau leaves tomorrow. You'll no doubt hear that mentioned tonight.

The lone debate between the veteran six-term senator and the new governor will play out on a campus stage in St. Louis, drawing intense scrutiny and maybe even higher TV ratings than their ticket tops got in their debate last Friday.

Palin's taken a lot of heat in recent days for answers she didn't give during a recent TV interview that seems to be going on for several days now. And Biden is taking no heat whatsoever for saying he was shot at in Iraq when he wasn't, when another Democrat took weeks of heat last winter for saying she was shot at in Bosnia when she wasn't. Funny how those things happen to the female candidates.

Our esteemed colleague James Oliphant over at the Swamp has pulled together a few debating points to keep in mind as you watch this evening, kind of like a rhetorical scorecard. The top-five goals for each:

BIDEN:

Attack John McCain, not Palin

Although Palin's poll numbers are down nationally, there remains a large and energized group of Palinites who seem to see every attack on her as a personal affront. Add to that the potentially huge number of undecided female voters, and it becomes clear that Biden is walking a fine line. He can't be viewed as beating up on her.

Don't lecture.

Biden teaches constitutional law on the side, and he'll have to resist the temptation to turn professorial if Palin struggles with details or policy positions. Remember ABC's Charles Gibson peering down at Palin, his spectacles imperiously perched on his nose Santa Claus-style, quizzing her about the Bush Doctrine that he got wrong himself? That played into Palin's blame-the-media stand.

Keep it short

Biden has a habit of using 12 words when a half-dozen will do. And he's prone to gaffes. Just recently he said Hillary Clinton might have made a better running mate for Obama and Franklin Roosevelt calmed the nation on television during the stock market crash, which came four years before Roosevelt's first term and a decade before TV. Other than that Biden was dead-on.

PALIN:

Attack Barack Obama through Biden

The McCain campaign has already highlighted several ways that Biden criticized Obama during the Democratic primaries. One obvious area is the war in Iraq. Biden supported the war and voted to fund it at every instance; Obama has never supported the war and joined other members of Congress in seeking policy leverage through funding bills. This could keep Biden on the defensive and force him to explain himself instead of talk about Obama.

Keep it short

Anyone who watched Palin's performance last week and this week on the "CBS Evening News" knows what can happen when the governor talks extemporaneously. She seems to wander into a verbal corn maze she can't find her way out of. So Palin's answers need to be short, succinct and crystal-clear.

Because it's all about her

Unlike with Biden, this debate is part of a continuing national referendum on Palin's fitness for the GOP ticket. The truth is, Biden will be an afterthought regardless of what he does, short of setting his lectern on fire. All eyes will be on Palin. Her answers will be dissected, analyzed, debated. She can't afford too many mistakes.

For the last two goals of each VP candidate, check out Oliphant's complete story here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Hey, why not register at Twitter to get instant alerts of all new Ticket items flashed straight to your cell?

Photo credits: Associated Press (Joe Biden, top); Helen Ebenhack / Associated Press (Sarah Palin, bottom)

Comments

[Schreff]

The ultra liberal LA Times will never give a conservative a fair shake. Just fact. Good luck Palin but don't expect a good word out of the LA Times. Just fact. CBS was slanted just like the rest of the liberal media. We may get a very liberal country this year and I feel this is a terrible mover toward the beginning of the end of our great country. Hope I'm wrong. Now, on Katie Couric.
I have never ever seen a supposedly professional journalist ask the same question two or three times. Badgering until she either got the answer she wanted or no answer at all. I have an IQ of 162 and I would not have been able to do as well as Palin. As for Couric, she's getting over-the-hill and her ratings prove it. This was just a desperate move to elevate her in the eyes of her CBS liberal management. She needed it. Very easy to see through too. Katie, I was ashamed of you and even your eyes and facial expressions confirmed your unfairness and hate.

[Rodger Lemonde]

Some folks are so far right that Eisenhower and Nixon seem like froth at the mouth liberals.
Hey Screff you're such a genius, where was Katie Couric mentioned in this article?
Fact, most media companies are owned by conservatives that love making money and spouting a conservative line doesn't bring in the most bucks.

[peabody3000]

charlie gibson didnt get the meaning of 'bush doctrine' wrong... that term in fact does have an entrenched conventional meaning. the only reason conservatives are calling gibson out on using a term that oesnt have a strictly defined meaning is that palin flubbed her answer completely. palin's problem wasnt that she couldnt settle on one meaning for the term. her problem was she had no idea of any possible meaning for the term. she is incapable of intelligent response to any political questions without coaching from her handlers. im looking forward to the sarah palin comedy show tonight! she has been providing me with a steady stream of laughs for weeks now!! well, laughs tinged with some abject pity for her miserable shortcomings, but so much the better that america gets to see it firsthand

[patriot]

To Schreff, I seriously call into doubt your 162 IQ.
"We may get a very liberal country this year and I feel this is a terrible mover toward the beginning of the end of our great country. Hope I'm wrong. Now, on Katie Couric."
Are you kidding me? Have you been in a coma for the last 8 years? The conservative agenda that Bush carried out as a mandate with a majority in both houses has ushered in more national debt, domestic turmoil, and loss of American lives. I don't know how you measure "the beginning of the end of our terrible country," but any reasonable person would recognize a change from the conservaitve agenda would be a positive... "now on to katie couric" great analysis, moron.

[patriot]

To Schreff, I seriously call into doubt your 162 IQ.
"We may get a very liberal country this year and I feel this is a terrible mover toward the beginning of the end of our great country. Hope I'm wrong. Now, on Katie Couric."

Are you kidding me? Have you been in a coma for the last 8 years? The conservative agenda that Bush carried out as a mandate with a majority in both houses has ushered in more national debt, domestic turmoil, and loss of American lives. I don't know how you measure "the beginning of the end of our terrible country," but any reasonable person would recognize a change from the conservaitve agenda would be a positive. "Now on to katie couric" great analysis, news flash pal, it is the media's job to ask tough questions, it is one thing for Palin to not know Marbury v. Madison, but it is quite another for Palin to dig a rhetorical hole re her lack of foreign policy experience. And as for the Gibson interview, don't you find it unacceptable for the leadership you support to be uneducated about the very doctrine the espouse in every question re foreign policy, ie "Bush Doctrine."

[Donna]

Biden will win the debate. Palin hasn't been able to form a coherent sentence as of late. Surely, she won't win a debate. More importantly, when she does manage to link coherent words together, they don't inspire confidence. Given our eoonomic calamady, and our war, and our health care and education systems, teetering on the brink of disaster, I can't imagine anyone wanting Mrs. Palin in a position of power. It's one thing to run a state a 1/3 of the size of the San Fernando Valley, and it's quite another to run a country once thought to be the most powerful in the world.

[jason]

I've seen these two AmateurMatch before. They should really get better at what they do.

[Wily Trax]

If they had of made this debate Pay Per View we could have easily bailed out Wall Street.

http://www.wilytrax.com

[Carlos]

Palin can't lose this debate. If she stumbles and the media calls her on it, her campaign will say that the media continues to attack her and she will come off as a victim. And, there is nothing that we Americans love more and an attractive female victim. The best she could do at tonight's debate is to goof so that the GOP can continue to create her little-girl-down-a-well persona.

[O-bam-aaa]

There are economical cycles, 7-year, 10-year, 100-years long. The current situation is not much to blame the current Republican administration, and specially not Bush alone. It's just a human nature to find the sacrifice goat to blame all the problems on.
The real division between us is between those who wants individual liberties and those who is for the common good. I wish to say, let's all leave in peace and love each other. But I'm experienced enough now to see that would be an utopy. We witness the decline of the Empire. There is nothing new under the sun. Personally, I'm for the common good and for the long run, therefore Republican program is closer to me.
Russian-American.