Legal Commentary

Debate Expectations and Predictions

By Jeralyn

In 90 minutes, Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin will debate. Politico reports Palin's game plan is to attack Biden and throw his words from former statements, particularly about foreign policy, back at him. Biden, it reports, will be a "just the facts" style debater, concentrating on defending Obama and attacking McCain.

Expectations for Palin, once in the tank, now are mounting.

“This is going to finally put her back into a position where we see her like we saw her the first couple weeks,” a McCain official said. “She was herself. She was authentic, and people related to that. ... Tonight, she’ll get into a rhythm. You’re going to see her in a way that you haven’t seen her yet.”

I don't know that anyone much cares. They're tuning in to see if there's a train wreck.

I don't expect any major gaffes from Palin. She's been coached to the gills by now. Nor do I expect she'll win McCain any voters. [More...]

We've all seen enough of her in past month to know she's not up to the job of Vice-President. McCain/Palin will keep their base, the radical right and conservatives, but they will lose almost everyone else. They now are poised to lose Ohio, PA, Michigan and Florida. In addition, Obama's massive 50 state voter registration drive is going to crush them-- the Dems will have registered too many new voters for them to effectively compete. In the end, there will be more of us than there are of them.

Between the phony maverickness, McCain's Hail Mary pass in picking Palin and his stunt of suspending his campaign in a pretense that Congress needed him to help with the Bailout bill, his credibility is dropping daily.

Palin has peaked twice now -- first with voters, then with the media, via the Katie Couric interviews. Third time's the charm.

Regardless of how she does tonight, and I expect she'll hold her own by avoiding detailed policy answers that show up her lack of knowledge and by turning all questions into an attack on Biden and Obama, the debate is just theater. At best, it will be entertaining. At worst, boring.

What are your last minute expectations and predictions? We'll be back to live-blog the debate.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).