| CANDIDATE SOUNDBITES | Candidate Soundbites-
Full Transcript
On the Economy / Bailout Bill - BIDEN: I think it's neither the best or worst of Washington, but it's evidence of the fact that the
economic policies of the last eight years have been the worst economic policies we've ever had. As a consequence,
you've seen what's happened on Wall Street.
If you need any more proof positive of how bad the economic theories have been, this excessive deregulation,
the failure to oversee what was going on, letting Wall Street run wild, I don't think you needed any more
evidence than what you see now....
Yes, well, you know, until two weeks ago -- it was two Mondays ago John McCain said at
9 o'clock in the morning that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Two weeks before that, he
said George -- we've made great economic progress under George Bush's policies.
Nine o'clock, the economy was strong. Eleven o'clock that same day, two Mondays ago, John McCain said
that we have an economic crisis.
That doesn't make John McCain a bad guy, but it does point out he's out of touch. Those folks on the
sidelines knew that two months ago.
- PALIN:....The barometer there, I think, is going to be resounding that our economy is hurting and
the federal government has not provided the sound oversight that we need and that we deserve, and we
need reform to that end.
People in the Senate with him, his colleagues, didn't want to listen to him and wouldn't go towards that
reform that was needed then. I think that the alarm has been heard, though, and there will be that greater
oversight, again thanks to John McCain's bipartisan efforts that he was so instrumental in bringing folks
together over this past week, even suspending his own campaign to make sure he was putting excessive politics
aside and putting the country first....
John McCain, in referring to the fundamental of our economy being strong, he was talking
to and he was talking about the American workforce. And the American workforce is the greatest in this
world, with the ingenuity and the work ethic that is just entrenched in our workforce. That's a positive.
That's encouragement. And that's what John McCain meant.
On the Lending Meltdown - PALIN: Darn right it was the predator lenders, who tried to talk Americans into thinking that
it was smart to buy a $300,000 house if we could only afford a $100,000 house. There was deception there,
and there was greed and there is corruption on Wall Street. And we need to stop that....
One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just every day
American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and
say never again. Never will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing
our money and loaning us these dollars....
I would like to respond about the tax increases. We can speak in agreement here that darn right
we need tax relief for Americans so that jobs can be created here. Now, Barack Obama and Senator Biden also
voted for the largest tax increases in U.S. history. Barack had 94 opportunities to side on the people's side
and reduce taxes and 94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction, 94 times....
I'm still on the tax thing because I want to correct you on that again. And I want to let
you know what I did as a mayor and as a governor. And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator
or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track
record also....
- BIDEN: So what you had is you had overwhelming"deregulation." You had actually the belief
that Wall Street could self-regulate itself. And while Barack Obama was talking about reinstating
those regulations, John on 20 different occasions in the previous year and a half called for more
deregulation. As a matter of fact, John recently wrote an article in a major magazine saying that
he wants to do for the health care industry deregulate it and let the free market move like he did
for the banking industry....
The charge is absolutely not true.... Number two, using the standard that the governor uses,
John McCain voted 477 times to raise taxes....John McCain said as early as last December, quote -- I'm paraphrasing --"I'm surprised about this subprime mortgage crisis," number one.
On Taxes and Healthcare - BIDEN: The middle class is struggling. The middle class under John McCain's tax proposal,
100 million families, middle class families, households to be precise, they got not a single change,
they got not a single break in taxes....
And then you're going to have to replace a $12,000 -- that's the average cost of the plan you get
through your employer -- it costs $12,000. You're going to have to pay -- replace a $12,000 plan, because 20
million of you are going to be dropped. Twenty million of you will be dropped.
So you're going to have to place -- replace a $12,000 plan with a $5,000 check you just give to the
insurance company. I call that the"Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere."
- PALIN: Now you said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic.
In the middle class of America which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that's not patriotic.
Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you're not always the solution. In fact, too often you're the problem
so, government, lessen the tax burden and on our families and get out of the way and let the private sector and
our families grow and thrive and prosper. An increased tax formula that Barack Obama is proposing in addition to
nearly a trillion dollars in new spending that he's proposing is the backwards way of trying to grow our economy.
...But a $5,000 health care credit through our income tax that's budget neutral. That's going to help.
And he also wants to erase those artificial lines between states so that through competition, we can cross state
lines and if there's a better plan offered somewhere else, we would be able to purchase that. So affordability and
accessibility will be the keys there with that $5,000 tax credit also being offered. On Campaign Promises - BIDEN: The bottom line here is that we are going to, in fact, eliminate those wasteful spending that exist
in the budget right now, a number of things I don't have time, because the light is blinking, that I won't be able
to mention, but one of which is the $100 billion tax dodge that, in fact, allows people to take their post office
box off- shore, avoid taxes. I call that unpatriotic. I call that unpatriotic.
- PALIN: I want to go back to the energy plan, though, because this is -- this is an important one that
Barack Obama, he voted for in '05. Senator Biden, you would remember that, in that energy plan that Obama
voted for, that's what gave those oil companies those big tax breaks. Your running mate voted for that....
There is not. And how long have I been at this, like five weeks? So there hasn't been a whole lot that
I've promised, except to do what is right for the American people, put government back on the side of the
American people, stop the greed and corruption on Wall Street.
And the rescue plan has got to include that massive oversight that Americans are expecting and deserving.
And I don't believe that John McCain has made any promise that he would not be able to keep, either.
On Energy - PALIN: We're circulating about $700 billion a year into foreign countries, some who do not like America --
they certainly don't have our best interests at heart -- instead of those dollars circulating here, creating tens
of thousands of jobs and allowing domestic supplies of energy to be tapped into and start flowing into these very,
very hungry markets.
Energy independence is the key to this nation's future, to our economic future, and to our national security.
So when we talk about energy plans, it's not just about who got a tax break and who didn't. And we're not giving
oil companies tax breaks, but it's about a heck of a lot more than that.
Energy independence is the key to America's future....
Yes, Senator McCain does support this. The chant is"drill, baby, drill." And that's what we
hear all across this country in our rallies because people are so hungry for those domestic sources of energy
to be tapped into....
I was surprised to hear you mention that because you had said that there isn't anything -- such a thing as clean coal.
And I think you said it in a rope line, too, at one of your rallies.
- BIDEN: Well, I think it is manmade. I think it's clearly manmade. And, look, this probably explains
the biggest fundamental difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and Sarah Palin and Joe Biden --
Governor Palin and Joe Biden.
If you don't understand what the cause is, it's virtually impossible to come up with a solution. We know what
the cause is. The cause is manmade. That's the cause. That's why the polar icecap is melting.
On Same Sex Marriage & Benefits - BIDEN: Absolutely. Do I support granting same-sex benefits? Absolutely positively. Look, in an Obama-Biden
administration, there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal
standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple....
No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage. We do not support that. - PALIN: Well, not if it goes closer and closer towards redefining the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman.
And unfortunately that's sometimes where those steps lead....But in that tolerance also, no one would ever propose,
not in a McCain-Palin administration, to do anything to prohibit, say, visitations in a hospital or contracts being
signed, negotiated between parties...
Your question to him was whether he supported gay marriage and my answer is the same as
his and it is that I do not.
On Iraq - PALIN: And Senator Biden, I respected you when you called him out on that. You said that his vote was
political and you said it would cost lives. And Barack Obama at first said he would not do that. He turned
around under political pressure and he voted against funding the troops. We do have a plan for withdrawal.
We don't need early withdrawal out of Iraq. We cannot afford to lose there or we're going to be no better
off in the war in Afghanistan either. We have got to win in Iraq....
Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today,
that's for sure. And it's not what our nation needs to be able to count on. You guys opposed the surge.
The surge worked. Barack Obama still can't admit the surge works. - BIDEN: Gwen, with all due respect, I didn't hear a plan. Barack Obama offered a clear plan.
Shift responsibility to Iraqis over the next 16 months. Draw down our combat troops. Ironically the same plan
that Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq and George Bush are now negotiating. The only odd man out here,
only one left out is John McCain, number one. Number two, with regard to Barack Obama not quote funding the
troops, John McCain voted the exact same way. John McCain voted against funding the troops because of an
amendment he voted against had a timeline in it to draw down American troops. And John said I'm not going
to fund the troops if in fact there's a time line. Barack Obama and I agree fully and completely on one thing.
You've got to have a time line to draw down the troops and shift responsibility to the Iraqis.
- BIDEN: But let's get straight who has been right and wrong.... John McCain was saying the
Sunnis and Shias got along with each other without reading the history of the last 700 years. John
McCain said there would be enough oil to pay for this. John McCain has been dead wrong. I love him.
As my mother would say, god love him, but he's been dead wrong on the fundamental issues relating to
the conduct of the war. Barack Obama has been right. There are the facts.
On Iran and Pakistan - PALIN: An armed, nuclear armed especially Iran is so extremely dangerous to consider. They cannot be allowed to
acquire nuclear weapons period...
And an issue like that taken up by a presidential candidate goes beyond naivete and goes beyond poor judgment.
A statement that he made like that is downright dangerous because leaders like Ahmadinejad who would seek to
acquire nuclear weapons and wipe off the face of the earth an ally like we have in Israel should not be met
with without preconditions and diplomatic efforts being undertaken first.
- BIDEN: Now, John and Governor Palin now say they're all for -- they have a passion, I think the phrase
was, a passion for diplomacy and that we have to bring our friends and allies along.
Our friends and allies have been saying, Gwen,"Sit down. Talk. Talk. Talk." Our friends and allies have been
saying that, five secretaries of state, three of them Republicans.
And John McCain has said he would go along with an agreement, but he wouldn't sit down. Now, how do you do that
when you don't have your administration sit down and talk with the adversary?
On Israel - PALIN: Israel is our strongest and best ally in the Middle East. We have got to assure them that we will never
allow a second Holocaust, despite, again, warnings from Iran and any other country that would seek to destroy
Israel, that that is what they would like to see.
We will support Israel. A two-state solution, building our embassy, also, in Jerusalem, those things that
we look forward to being able to accomplish, with this peace-seeking nation, and they have a track record of
being able to forge these peace agreements.
- BIDEN: Gwen, no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden. I would have
never, ever joined this ticket were I not absolutely sure Barack Obama shared my passion.
- PALIN: But for a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there's just
too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that's where you're going.
Positive change is coming, though. Reform of government is coming. We'll learn from the past mistakes in
this administration and other administrations.... That's what John McCain has been known for in all these years.
He has been the maverick. He has ruffled feathers.
But I know, Senator Biden, you have respected for them that, and I respect you for acknowledging that.
But change is coming.
On Nuclear Weapons & Afganistan - PALIN: Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be all, end all of just too many people in too many parts
of our planet, so those dangerous regimes, again, cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, period....
Now, Barack Obama had said that all we're doing in Afghanistan is air-raiding villages and killing civilians.
And such a reckless, reckless comment and untrue comment, again, hurts our cause.
That's not what we're doing there. We're fighting terrorists, and we're securing democracy, and we're
building schools for children there so that there is opportunity in that country, also. There will be a
big difference there, and we will win in -- in Afghanistan, also....
Barack Obama was saying we need more troops there. Again, we spend in three weeks on combat missions in Iraq,
more than we spent in the entire time we have been in Afghanistan. That will change in a Barack Obama administration.
- BIDEN: Look, we have spent more money -- we spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on
the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country.
Let me say that again. Three weeks in Iraq; seven years, seven years or six-and-a-half years in Afghanistan.
Now, that's number one.
Number two, with regard to arms control and weapons, nuclear weapons require a nuclear arms control regime.
John McCain voted against a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that every Republican has supported.
On Foreign Wars, etc.. - BIDEN: With regard to Iraq, I indicated it would be a mistake to -- I gave the president the power. I voted for
the power because he said he needed it not to go to war but to keep the United States, the UN in line, to keep
sanctions on Iraq and not let them be lifted. I, along with Dick Lugar, before we went to war, said if we were to go to war without our allies,
without the kind of support we need, we'd be there for a decade and it'd cost us tens of billions of dollars.
John McCain said, no, it was going to be OK.
- PALIN: Oh, yeah, it's so obvious I'm a Washington outsider. And someone just not used to the way you guys
operate. Because here you voted for the war and now you oppose the war. You're one who says, as so many
politicians do, I was for it before I was against it or vice- versa. Americans are craving that straight
talk and just want to know, hey, if you voted for it, tell us why you voted for it and it was a war resolution...
.I beg to disagree with you, again, here on whether you supported Barack Obama or John McCain's strategies. Here
again, you can say what you want to say a month out before people are asked to vote on this, but we listened to
the debates.
On Education - PALIN: Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced your whole comment
with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to
do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate
about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right?
I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have
got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more.
I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a
schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the
year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School,
you get extra credit for watching the debate.
- BIDEN: I hope we'll get back to education because I don't know any government program that John
is supporting, not early education, more money for it. The reason No Child Left Behind was left behind,
the money was left behind, we didn't fund it.
On the role of the Vice-President - PALIN: Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we
have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. And it is my executive
experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as V.P. with McCain, not only as a governor, but earlier
on as a mayor, as an oil and gas regulator, as a business owner. It is those years of experience on an executive
level that will be put to good use in the White House also.
- BIDEN: And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president
of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice
president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution
is explicit.
On the Candidates' Achilles heel - PALIN: But it wasn't just that experience tapped into, it was my connection to the heartland of America.
Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off
to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills? About times and Todd and our marriage in our past
where we didn't have health insurance and we know what other Americans are going through as they sit around
the kitchen table and try to figure out how are they going to pay out-of-pocket for health care? We've been
there also so that connection was important.... People aren't looking for more of the same. They are looking for
change. And John McCain has been the consummate maverick in the Senate over all these years.... We have got to
win the wars. We have got to get our economy back on track. We have got to not allow the greed and corruption
on Wall Street anymore....Change is coming. And John McCain is the leader of that reform.
- BIDEN: You're very kind suggesting my only Achilles Heel is my lack of discipline...
Others talk about my excessive passion. I'm not going to change. I have 35 years in public office.
People can judge who I am. I haven't changed in that time....
I understand, as well as, with all due respect, the governor or anybody else, what it's like for those people
sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They're looking for help. They're looking for help.
They're not looking for more of the same....Look, the maverick -- let's talk about the maverick John McCain is.
And, again, I love him. He's been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that
matter to people's lives.
On Bipartisanship - BIDEN: I have been able to reach across the aisle. I think it's fair to say that I have almost
as many friends on the Republican side of the aisle as I do the Democratic side of the aisle....
I have been able to work across the aisle on some of the most controversial issues and change my party's mind,
as well as Republicans', because I learned a lesson from Mike Mansfield. Mike Mansfield, a former leader of
the Senate, said to me one day -- he -- I made a criticism of Jesse Helms. He said,"What would you do if I
told you Jesse Helms and Dot Helms had adopted a child who had braces and was in real need?" I said,"I'd
feel like a jerk." He said,"Joe, understand one thing. Everyone's sent here for a reason, because there's
something in them that their folks like. Don't question their motive."
- PALIN: Now, Barack Obama, of course, he's pretty much only voted along his party lines. In fact,
96 percent of his votes have been solely along party line, not having that proof for the American people
to know that his commitment, too, is, you know, put the partisanship, put the special interests aside,
and get down to getting business done for the people of America....
You do what I did as governor, and you appoint people regardless of party affiliation, Democrats, independents,
Republicans. You -- you walk the walk; you don't just talk the talk.
And even in my own family, it's a very diverse family. And we have folks of all political persuasion in
there, also, so I've grown up just knowing that, you know, at the end of the day, as long as we're all
working together for the greater good, it's going to be OK.
Changing View & Closing Remarks - BIDEN: And so that -- that -- that was one of the intellectual changes that took place in my career as I got
a close look at it. And that's why I was the first chairman of the Judiciary Committee to forthrightly
state that it matters what your judicial philosophy is. The American people have a right to understand it
and to know it....
You know, in the neighborhood I grew up in, it was all about dignity and respect. A neighborhood like most
of you grew up in. And in that neighborhood, it was filled with women and men, mothers and fathers who taught
their children if they believed in themselves, if they were honest, if they worked hard, if they loved their
country, they could accomplish anything. We believed it, and we did. That's why Barack Obama and I
are running, to re-establish that certitude in our neighborhoods.
Ladies and gentlemen, my dad used to have an expression. He'd say," champ, when you get knocked down, get up."
Well, it's time for America to get up together. America's ready, you're ready,
I'm ready, and Barack Obama is ready to be the next president of the United States of America. - PALIN: ...But on the major principle things, no, there hasn't been something that I've had to compromise on,
because we've always seemed to find a way to work together. Up there in Alaska, what we have done is,
with bipartisan efforts, is work together and, again, not caring who gets the credit for what, as we
accomplish things up there....
I want to assure you that John McCain and I, we're going to fight for America. We're going to fight
for the middle-class, average, everyday American family like mine.
I've been there. I know what the hurts are. I know what the challenges are. And, thank God,
I know what the joys are, too, of living in America. We are so blessed. And I've always been proud to
be an American. And so has John McCain.
We have to fight for our freedoms, also, economic and our national
security freedoms.
It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction.
We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand
it to them so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years
telling our children and our children's children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and
women were free.
We will fight for it, and there is only one man in this race who has really ever fought for you,
and that's Senator John McCain.
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| HISTORIANS' COMMENTS | Historians' Comments- MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, Presidential Historian:
Well, I think in one way, and that is, you know, we saw Adlai Stevenson distance himself
from the unpopular Harry Truman in '52. And Hubert Humphrey tried to do that with LBJ in 1968.
But Sarah Palin put both of them in the shade tonight. She left George W. Bush way behind in the snow.
You would think that there was almost no connection between them, especially because, on one of the rare
occasions when Joe Biden essentially tried to say,"This is the president of your party," and she said,"You know, Joe, you're looking backwards. Say it ain't so."
And I think the result of that was, you didn't have a candidate who was trying to defend a lot
of the Iraq war, as unpopular as it is, or even some of the president's decisions that may have led
to this economic crisis.
And the result was that this was sort of an argument by her relentless that was not too different from
a lot of the Republican presidential campaigns all the way back to '72."The Democrats will give you high
taxes. They're too weak."
I thought that she went almost over the line in saying that Biden and Obama, if elected, would raise
the white flag of surrender. I think that was really not of the stature of a potential vice president....
Well, and both of them were probably helped by the rules, the McCain side that was worried that Sarah Palin,
if you had longer answers and, as you know better than anyone, Jim, these were rules that were different
from the ones that you operated under last week, much more clipped answers, much less sort of interaction
between the two candidates.
And so there was not a gaffe on either side. And I think both sides were relieved.
But I didn't think that they really looked equal tonight. I think she got through without saying
something that would damage her in the way that some of these interviews that she's done with Katie Couric
and others have done during the last week.
But I think Biden gave the sense of someone who's a little bit more human, a lot more willing to confess human
error. His was sort of,"You know, here I am, warts and all." I think that's appealing in a public figure.
-
PBS Newshour, 10-2-08 - RICHARD NORTON SMITH, George Mason University: Sure. Well, I agree with David. I think, in a sense,
that she obviously surpassed expectations if you thought that Tina Fey basically had set, you know, the threshold.
I think the biggest change that will probably occur as a result of this evening, I think you will hear those
voices on the right, particularly conservative intellectuals, who have been calling publicly for her to get off
the ticket, I think that will go away. There is no doubt that Sarah Palin's name will be on the ballot on
November 4th.
Beyond that, I have to tell you, you know, we're all understandably spending a lot of time talking about
Governor Palin. Joe Biden had a difficult job, in some ways, going into this. Remember Vice President Bush 20
years ago with Geraldine Ferraro.
Remember going into this debate, everyone was speculating about, would he be condescending? Would he talk down
to her? Would he make her a sympathetic figure by, you know, inadvertently? Would he be too long-winded? Would
he make gaffes?
And the fact is, I think he turned in a solid performance this evening. So, on balance, I'm not sure this is
really a game-changer. -
PBS Newshour, 10-2-08 - ELLEN FITZPATRICK, University of New Hampshire: Well, I think it may have been; it may not have been.
We'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.
But what's fascinating to me was that, in 1984, Geraldine Ferraro was asked how she could be commander-in-chief
during the vice presidential debate when she had no military experience.
And, furthermore, wouldn't it be likely that the Soviets might take advantage of her, were we to have
a woman president or vice president? Wouldn't this somehow weaken the powers of the office to have a
woman holding it?
And she answered in a very straightforward way. And throughout that entire debate, she never made
reference, really, to her gender.
Tonight, we heard a debate being waged here in which Governor Palin repeatedly referred to being a mom,
to soccer games, to parents, to third-graders, to hockey moms, and to her own children, to her family.
And in that 25-year period almost that has gone by, it's an enormous sea change, it seems to me, in
the politics of gender. I would wager that, if Geraldine Ferraro had said these things in 1984, that
she would have been criticized for calling attention to her role as a mother and relying on that as
a kind of expertise.
Tonight, I thought Governor Palin raised these issues repeatedly as qualifying her in some special way for the
office that she aspires to hold.
...I found it a little bit folksy for my taste, but the voters, of course, will decide. I thought that what
we were hearing was a kind of populism in which the implication was that complex problems are not very complex
and that common sense is really a qualification that she holds, like many other Americans, that will help
solve the problems the nation faces. -
PBS Newshour, 10-2-08 - DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN (presidential historian)From October 2 broadcast of PBS' Charlie Rose: I didn't really see
any gaffes, nor were there many Tina Fey moments, or what might come on Saturday Night Live. The only one might
be when she asked what might trigger a nuclear war, and she went into,"A nuclear war, that's the be-all
and the end-all. That's bad. A lot of people, gone." I can see them using that as a moment, but other than that,
no, they both handled everything pretty well....
Oh, and there was McKiernan versus McClellan, the name of the general in Afghanistan. -
Nedia Matters, 10-2-08
- Douglas Brinkley"Presidential historian discusses vice presidential debate":"What she's good at is about Alaska politics, gas and oil issues, energy issues, and now national issues,
so you don't want to minimize that," says Brinkley."But clearly she's somebody who is not a global thinker
in a time of a global economy and a time of a global war on terror, and she has to prove... in this
debate tonight that she is a quick study, that she's got good judgment." -
CbS News7, 10-2-08
- Allan Lichtman on"At High-Stakes Debate, VP Candidates Face Unique Challenges":"She has really got to show that she has an understanding of the economy and an understanding of the world,"
American University professor Allan Lichtman said."She should be herself, she shouldn't hold back
(against Biden), but she has got to show that she has substance there."..."He can't appear to be overbearing and bullying, but he can be tough," Lichtman said."He cannot emit one of his famous gaffes," Lichtman said. -
Fox News, 10-2-08
- Douglas Brinkley on"At High-Stakes Debate, VP Candidates Face Unique Challenges":"Let her be a voice of something different," historian Douglas Brinkley said."'I may not
have been in Washington, I don't have the world experience, but my judgment's good and my heart's in the right place'." -
Fox News, 10-2-08
- Peter Kastor on"US braces for VP debate as Palin's star wanes":"It's make-or-break for her in the sense that, in a three-game series, her record so far is one and one:
the convention and the interviews," said Peter Kastor, Washington University history professor,"This could be what seals the deal. If she does extremely well or extremely poorly, obviously it will be
the debate that people say defines Sarah Palin’s candidacy." Washington University history professor
Peter Kastor told AFP. -
AFP, Time (UK), 10-2-08
- Julian Zelizer - DEMOCRATS SHOULD IGNORE THE PALIN-BIDEN DEBATE:"Everyone will be watching the Biden-Palin vice presidential debate. This is an eagerly awaited event,
with predictions that Americans will tune in high numbers to see whether Palin can handle the tough
questions and if Biden puts his foot in his mouth, once again.
Democrats need to be very careful. When Senator McCain introduced Governor Palin as his running mate,
Republicans completely knocked Democrats off their message. The Democratic Party had just come off a
very strong convention and a historic speech by Senator Barack Obama. Yet the introduction of Palin
created a media frenzy around her, distracting reporters from the main contest, and giving Republicans
a chance to regroup and to rebound in the polls.....
....Tonight's debate, in certain respects, comes at
perfect time for Republicans. Whatever happens,
Americans will be watching Palin not Obama.
Democrats should stay focused on the themes from this week, rather than encourage reporters to spend
the next week talking about the gaffes or intelligence of Palin. In the end, this is a contest between
McCain and Obama, and about Bush's record over the last eight years. When Republicans shift to other
issues, they do better. When forced to confront the main issues, they have struggled. -
Huffington Post, 10-2-08 - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich - Uneasy Twins:"For the past few weeks the nation has been engaged in a truly bizarre debate over who is better
qualified for the presidency -- Barack Obama or Sarah Palin. It doesn't matter that he is a candidate
for president, she for vice president. Or that he won his party's nomination through a hard-fought primary
that energized millions of new voters and raised America's standing abroad. Suddenly, in the first weeks of
September, he was last year's celebrity, she the new star. Plucked from obscurity in Alaska, she was the new
Obama even though no one outside her home state had ever checked her name on a ballot.
Black man. White woman. The only possible basis for comparison is that neither Barack Obama nor Sarah Palin
is a white male...." -
Huffington Post, 10-2-08
- Great Moments In Veep Debate History:"Who Am I? Why Am I Here?" -
The Hotline Political Network, 10-1-08
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