Watching the vice presidential debate tonight (Oct. 2, 2008) between Sen. Barack Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, and Republican Sarah Palin takes a little preparation, almost as much as watching your favorite game on the weekend.
First of all, you need to watch the debate with friends -- like fellow Obama-Biden supporters at Memories Lounge (1840 S. Old U.S. 23, Brighton). Supporters will gather there beginning around 7 p.m. and will be invited to make calls to undecided voters.
Then, you need to know what to watch for. We already know that Joe Biden will do a great job. Expectations for Palin range from the McCain spin (if she shows up with a pulse and speaks in complete sentences most of the time, she wins) to the Obama camp's belief that she will do as well as she did in her gubernatorial debates in Alaska, which was pretty good according to the clips that are all over the Web.
There's no reason to think Palin won't do at least as well as she did in those gubernatorial sessions. She does, after all, have a college degree, experience as a broadcaster, and experience as a political speaker. And she has spent three solid days practicing by that creek in Sedona, Arizona.
Personally, I don't expect her to crash and burn. Instead, I expect that she will be glib, but general, filling her answers with a few phrases that she will repeat over and over. These will include "the surge is working," "country first," "maverick," and so on.
To a casual viewer, she will sound OK. But for voters look for a reason to support her, she will be short on specifics about our nation's challenges and how McCain will address them.
That's where she will fail and that's why McCain-Palin will come up short in November.
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