By Sarah Scully
What if the Biden-Palin debate showdown is not the "thrilla" the Washington Post is expecting? The Vice Presidential debate is arguably more anticipated than all of the McCain Obama debates combined but not because people hope to see a thought provoking, in depth interaction on policy. No, the reason most people are looking forward to this debate is pure schadenfreude. Sure, a few are hoping that the candidates will make up for their respective goofs over the last few weeks and surprise everyone by elevating the political discourse but most are eagerly anticipating seeing either Sarah Palin draw a blank at the most basic of questions or Joe Biden sticking his foot in his mouth with some inadvertently offensive comment. Both candidates have stumbled over the past few weeks with Biden rewriting history, referring to FDR getting on the television in 1929 and Palin unable to answer fairly basic questions in an interview with Katie Couric. The campaigns have spent a great deal of time and effort preparing these two for this night so it is possible that Sarah Palin will have intelligent answers, delivered with confident charm and it is also possible that Joe Biden will show a restraint in his verbosity and refer to his opponent with deference. They may not be able to completely conceal their weaknesses but odds are these two will be much more controlled and thoughtful in their responses than we are used to seeing. For those salivating at the chance to watch Palin fall, most likely she has learned from her Couric interview and will either have sharp answers or deflect any difficult questions with a campaign message statement or a crowd-pleasing, snarky jab at Biden's expense. Even if both or one of them makes a mistake, the expectations have been set so low (it's difficult to find an article about the debate without the word "gaffe" in it) that all these VP candidates have to do, Palin, in particular, is not completely flub it to come out of it with high marks.

By Sarah Scully | Link | 1 Comments | Recommended (3)

Tags: Biden, Couric, Debate, expectations, FDR, flub, gaffe, jab, Palin, VP Debate

By Sarah Scully

The immediate buzz in the press tent was that McCain had won but that it wouldn't have much of an impact.
The numbers coming in from focus groups and straw polls of voters indicated a win for Obama. Both campaigns, of course stormed the Spin Room after the debate claiming victory.
In the intervening days, the majority of press has settled on calling it a draw.
There may not have been a knock-out punch from either side but polls (and Intrade) have moved in Obama's favor since Friday's debate. That said, his campaign is all too aware of the precarious nature of polling. When we asked him about a potential debate bounce, chief strategist, David Axelrod told us: " if I listened too closely to polls I would have jumped off a high building about a year ago when they said we were thirty points behind for the nomination."

Stay tuned for our highlights episode from the debate, including interviews with Tucker Bounds, Howard Dean and Politico bloggers Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin.

By Sarah Scully | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (3)

Tags: Axelrod, Ben Smith, Bound, Debate, focus groups, Jonathan Martin, McCain, media, Obama, polls, straw polls

By William Rabbe

Conservative columnist, Kathleen Parker, of the National Review has called for Sarah Palin to withdraw from the Republican ticket.

Nearly a month after the Sarah Palin's triumphant speech at the RNC, several rather embarrassing moments have called her qualifications into question -- big time. Most of this buzz can be attributed to her interview with Katie Couric of on September 25th, described in TIME as "downright looney" and, "pathetic" by CNN's Jack Cafferty. If you search "Palin Couric" and total the number views on Youtube of various excerpts of the interview it is over 3 million so far.

Maybe Palin is "out of her league," as Parker states, but does this really mean that she should withdraw or that McCain should dump her? Speaking in terms of presidential politics: absolutely not. 1972 Democratic nominee George McGovern might have set the gold standard of bad political moves by doing just that in his race against Richard Nixon and it cost him dearly.

The late ex-vice presidential Candidate, Tom Eagleton, was dropped from the ticket after it was discovered that he has received electro-shock treatment for "fatigue" twice. Quite controversial at the time (although Geraldine Ferraro said in our interview that, "there have probably been a couple of Vice Presidents who have mental health problems and we just haven't found out about it..." -- who was she referring to?).

McGovern did not extensively vet his selection and the resulting "Eagleton Affair" was a disaster -- the move was seen by the public as overtly political, especially after he had publicly declared that he was behind Eagleton "1,000 percent."

For better or worse, McCain and Palin are stuck with eachother -- but if it's as bad as Kathleen Parker asserts, the campaign can take comfort that the Democrats probably won't attack Palin directly, just look at Michael Dukakis' 1988 campaign for President -- he ran ads against George H. W. Bush's "careless" choice of Dan Qualye, opening with narration stating that "the most powerful man in the world is mortal" (really?!?):

A lot of good that did him, Dukakis lost in a landslide. That ad was decidedly not a game changer, it was a distraction.

The truth is that people vote for the person on the top of the ticket. This conventional wisdom will probably hold true in 2008.

Nevertheless, what would it take for a "Palin Affair" to still happen? She would have to make a statement to exceed all bounds of absurdity, revealing herself to be an undeniable liability in the eyes of the American public. Like maybe if she said the moon was made of cheese...

This week will prove to be the ultimate test of Palin's cred -- the third and final part of the Katie Couric interview is set to air (perhaps they saved the best for last?) and the most anticipated vice presidential debate of all time will take place on Thursday. That means a lot of opportunity for gaffes. If Palin survives this week, Kathleen Parker can be assured that she's on the ticket for good.

By William Rabbe | Link | 1 Comments | Recommended (6)

Tags: Couric, Credibility, interview, John, Katie, McCain, Palin, President, Sarah, Vice

[Updated]
The McCain campaign is now proposing that the Mississippi debate be canceled and instead the St. Louis VP debate be used in its place with Biden and Palin rescheduling for a later date... Hmmm. This is either a rather sensible solution or a really convenient way of giving Sarah Palin more prep time. That is not to say that she particularly needs more prep time but this is the cynical assumption made by many who, in lieu of any evidence to contradict it (or any interaction at all) assume that Palin is cramming like crazy for her first big national battle with a man who has shown that he is more than comfortable in the spotlight.

The real question is whether McCain and Obama can continue to run their very partisan campaigns while also negotiating legislation that will require a serious bipartisan effort.

Either way, I just got off the phone with some rather upset Mississippians. "Do you know how much money and time went into planning this debate?! They better not cancel."
____________________________________________________________________________________
McCain's call to postpone the debate has been rejected but the statement alone may be enough to change the conversation. Can McCain leverage Obama's response against him, showing he puts his ambition first versus putting Country First? Or, will Obama use this as an opportunity to persuade voters that McCain is playing politics and/or avoiding answering real questions?
Everyone seems to hold a slightly different opinion on this one- some say brilliant political move while others say desperate and still others say it is an act of simple leadership. A variety of takes may be found on
Politico's new forum, The Arena.

What is your opinion? C'mon, it'll take you only a few moments to post it on our site and we do not require that you be an elected official or fancy magazine editor!

By Sarah Scully | Link | 1 Comments | Recommended (4)

Tags: Arena, bailout, Biden, bipartisan, debate, McCain, Mississippi, Obama, Palin, partisan, Politico, St. Louis, VP

McCain takes the high ground and in the process, sets a trap for Obama:

McCain says will suspend campaign to return to Washingon Thursday to help with bailout negotiations, asks that Friday debate with Obama be postponed so bailout negotiations can continue

If Obama agrees, he risks being out-shadowed by McCain in the Senate, who took the initiative to get back to DC. If Obama disagrees, he risks looking like a political opportunist, who would rather score points at the debate, than make a difference as a Senator.

The camp is already getting pushback on the blogosphere -- so, what motivates McCain? Genuine concern or is this a political stunt? Maybe there will be a compromise: proceed with the debate, but discuss economic issues, rather than foreign policy?

By William Rabbe | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (3)

Tags: cancel debate, DC, Debate, McCain, Obama, trap

Brilliant fun from the folks at SNL:

By William Rabbe | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (4)

Tags: Ads, McCain, political, TV spot

By William Rabbe

Barack Obama may have stretched the truth in tying Rush Limbaugh to John McCain on immigration.
In truth, the two generally do not agree on the issue, but in this political climate, getting away with as much as you can seems to be the name of the game... (Limbaugh's explaination here)

Maybe Obama will next link McCain and the right wing of the Republican party to Ann Coulter, who advocated to take away a woman's right to vote:

If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.

Pop quiz: who was the first first lady-to-be who got to vote for her husband for President?

Click here for the answer.

By William Rabbe | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (4)

Tags: 1920, Coulter, Limbaugh, McCain, Obama, Palin, right to vote, women

By William Rabbe

Herbert McCain? There's been a lot of chatter about John McCain's quote that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" and that, ironically, the very same sentence was uttered by Herbert Hoover just prior to the great depression. Harry Reid first made the comparison, to McCain's detriment -- Hoover, of course, was blamed for the largest economic downturn in history and was defeated overwhelmingly by Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.

McCain quickly corrected his statement, first saying that he was referring to "American workers" or the "spirit of innovation," then saying that the fundamentals are "strong" but "threatened."

His inadvertent historical reference is not helpful, but luckily, not many Americans: 1. remember Herbert Hoover, 2. study history that closely.

So, for anyone interested, here is a glimpse of the man -- clips from Herbert Hoover's campaigns in '28 and '32:

Also, this isn't the first time John McCain has been compared to Herbert Hoover -- Hillary Clinton criticized him in March for sounding "remarkably like Herbert Hoover" when he espoused his views against Government interference in the housing crisis, saying "it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers." Perhaps an equally regrettable statement in hindsight considering the necessity of AIG's bailout? This bailout was no "reward" to a financial institution that would have broken the economy's back had it been allowed to fail.

Look for McCain's position on the economy to further merge with Barack Obama's in the coming weeks. Economic populism is suddenly the trend in this election...

By William Rabbe | Link | 0 Comments | Recommended (4)

Tags: Economy, economy, Fundamentally, Herbert, Hoover, McCain, Sound