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Palin, Biden must avoid major gaffes

Tonight's vice presidential debate presents risks for both candidates

By David Lightman
McClatchy Newspapers

Published on Thursday, Oct 02, 2008

WASHINGTON: Sarah Palin faces a huge problem in tonight's vice presidential debate: She's in danger of becoming a national punch line.

As a result, the Republican's 90-minute debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden could be her last big chance to convince voters that she's got what it takes to run the country.

''She has a lot to prove,'' said James Riddlesperger, a professor of political science at Texas Christian University, ''and this is a real opportunity for her to do so.''

Biden also faces some risks. ''He's like the champion getting into the ring with Rocky Balboa. He can't appear to be a bully,'' said vice presidential scholar Timothy Walch. The longtime Delaware senator also has a history of putting his foot in his mouth, and a gaffe while
debating Palin could cost him.

The debate, though, is largely about Palin, the Alaska governor who was barely known in the Lower 48 until John McCain put her on the ticket just before last month's Republican convention.

She was an instant hit, at least with Republicans, charming the GOP convention with her plainspoken, frontier ways and her solid conservative credentials.

Since then, however, the nation has seen another Palin: carefully managed, kept under wraps, often scripted and seemingly out of her depth. A poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center reported, ''opinions about Sarah Palin have become increasingly negative.''

The Sept. 27-29 survey found that 51 percent of the public thinks she's not qualified to be president, and 37 percent think she is qualified. Just after the GOP convention, some 52 percent thought she was ready.

Worse, Palin has become the butt of late night jokes.

On Saturday Night Live, comedian Tina Fey has parodied Palin as a rambling, perky celebrity unfamiliar with the day's biggest issues.

Experts say Palin has done too little to overcome that image. Her interviews last week with CBS' Katie Couric have been widely ridiculed. Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker led the charge. Palin's TV interviews, she wrote, ''revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who is Clearly Out of Her League.''

Parker urged Palin to leave the ticket, imploring: ''Do it for your country.''

Couric asked Palin what she thought about the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package pending before Congress.

Palin's reply: ''But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the — oh, it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is part of that.''

Pundit jaws also dropped when Palin — who got her first passport last year — talked about foreign policy.

''As [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go?'' she asked on CBS. ''It's Alaska . . . It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.''

Biden, however, knows that he has to be careful to avoid looking like a Washington know-it-all. ''It could be very difficult for him to escape looking condescending,'' Riddlesperger said.

Biden also is gaffe-prone. Last week he told CBS: ''When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened' ''

The stock market crashed in 1929 and Roosevelt didn't become president until 1933. And when FDR spoke to the nation, it was on radio because television wasn't available yet.

''His critics are going to be looking for something like that,'' Riddlesperger said.

WASHINGTON: Sarah Palin faces a huge problem in tonight's vice presidential debate: She's in danger of becoming a national punch line.

Get the full article here.


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