I know its early to start this but I wanted to talk about it before it actually starts. I didn't want to wait 10 hours just to post these things.
First of all, I really don't believe its possible for Joe Biden to win this debate, but its extremely possible for him to lose this debate and to lose it hard. There is just nothing he can do in order to come out ahead here. The expectation game is so low that he has incredibly little to gain and everything to lose.
Now, that being said, modern presidential (and vice presidential) debates are simply a matter of playing prevent defense for 90 minutes. You're not likely to see these 2 engage each other directly very often and you're not likely to see heated exchanges. If you do, it is likely that Biden will come out behind; not because of anything he does or doesn't do but simply because he's up against a woman and because the expectation games.
And before any resident feminists (or Republicans in feminist clothing) chide me for saying its different because Biden is facing a woman, all the evidence points to this being the case. Barak lost voters in the primary season when he was snarky and confrontational with Clinton and we've already seen Republicans go to the "Thats sexist" card. Biden must NOT appear to be condescending in anyway.
There's a school of thought emerging that perhaps Palin can't really win either. That because the press has been so bad and that the expectations have been lowered so much that her ceiling has been lowered as well. No matter what she does in this debate, some of the negative feelings that she's an idiot will follow her. I'm not sure how much i buy into it. I do feel that Palin can score a win and make the American public forget about the interviews and the stupid answers and I tend to feel that the Dem base will always view her as an idiot but I'm not so sure how much of that translates into the middle ground. What I've learned about undecideds, moderates and independents is that they want to love everyone. They're likely to look for a reason to like that adorable Palin and her accent regardless of how many times Tina Fey comes back to SNL.
I'm not sure whats going to happen. I really have a hard time beliving that Palin is really that stupid. Its a hard pill for me to swallow that someone with a college degree, a career politician, and holder of a governorship cannot name a single supreme court case outside of Roe v Wade. I can name several that I both agree and disagree with just off the top of my head. I want to believe that this has been a miscalculation from the McCain camp regarding the expectations game. But then I look at our President, Dubya. And when I do that, I realize that motherfucker probably can't name a supreme court case either. Maybe not even the one he's a party in.
Anway, I think Palin makes it through ok but there are no earth shattering moments. And more because I'm going to DVR the Office and watching this will delay my watching of it, I want some damn made for TV moments but I don't see them coming. If we're lucky, we'll get some verbal diareah flowing from Palin's mouth and see the polls respond to that, but she's due a bit of luck herself and I wouldn't bet on that happening.
I pray she truly is Bush in drag.
