As with last Friday, I’ll be covering tonight’s debate.  This debate is different in style than Friday’s.  The Vice Presidential candidates won’t be talking to each other, so opportunity to rebut their opponent will be limited at best.  So, the challenge will be different.  I promise not to be as expository as last week, but more analytical.  You can watch the debate on your own; no need for more to tell you what they said.

As for the challenges the two candidates have, it’s simple.  Biden must not look like he’s talking down to Palin or ignoring her, and Palin must not look clueless.  There are ways to achieve this.

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The “expectations game” could really result in Palin “victory” in the VP debate. Palin went from provoking joy and confidence in conservatives and panic in liberals to provoking hilarity in liberals and panic in many conservatives.

Palin has supported the Obama position on Pakistan only to be told by McCain that she doesn’t really believe that. (more…)

This entry was originally going to be solely about Biden.  Then I watched the Palin interview with Katie Couric, and came to a conclusion:

These two vice presidential choices are probably the worst I have ever seen.  Biden says too much, and Palin says too little.  Biden mixes up his facts and gets his history plain wrong, and then slaps his own campaign in the face, while Palin can’t bring up any facts or history.  Biden comes off as a know-it-all (and then gaffes it up) while Palin comes off not knowing anything.  The worst thing is that Obama had to know Biden was like this and chose him anyway, while McCain clearly didn’t vet Palin enough to know she wasn’t ready for a situation like this and chose her anyway!

If you want some amusement, video of their latest gaffe and stutterfests are after the jump.

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How quickly would the MSM have jumped on this statement had Sarah Palin made it?

“Catholic social doctrine as I was taught it is, you take care of people who need the help the most,” he said. “Now it’d be different if you could make the case to me that by giving this tax cut to the very wealthy, everybody else was going to be better off. We saw what happened the last eight years when we gave that tax cut.”

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Proving he can still write things of some sanity, Andrew Sullivan is calling for Joe Biden to release his medical records.

Biden, who had two brain aneurysms twenty years ago, had them operated on and has not seen a recurrence of them…as far as we know. Not everybody is so lucky.  Three weeks ago, Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones died from a brain aneurysm.

Anyway, my point is that Americans (or, I) would like to know that their potential one day president is fit for the position.  So, I’m with Sullivan: release your medical records, Sen. Biden.  And not “very soon” like Ben Smith reports, but now.  As in…yesterday.  That goes for you too, Gov. Palin.

Well the instant message finally arrived. Biden is the VP nominee for the Democratic Party. The Obama camp put up a valiant effort to keep the pick secret until the very end, and though they didn’t entirely manage it, having kept the thing under wraps from a downright rabid press for as long as they did deserves to be commended.

Now, after the fevereish VP guessing game comes the fevereish VP evaluation game. Predictably, almost all the evaluation is going into political perception, not actual judgement.

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As the hours tick by to the time Barack Obama will probably announce his Vice Presidential running mate, I thought I’d chime in with some last minute thoughts.  As if you haven’t gotten enough already.

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According to the Iowa Independent, Bill Richardon’s campaign is set to instruct its supporters in districts where the Governor won’t get 15% of the vote, to support Barack Obama. If true, this could very well cause Obama to - indeed - win in Iowa today.

The reason, according to the II: “Richardson would prefer an Obama victory over Clinton because a Clinton victory could end the campaign before New Hampshire voters even head to the polls. And if Edwards’s numbers look weak, Richardson could head to New Hampshire as the best alternative to the top two contenders for the Democratic nomination.” (more…)

The Politico has a fascinating article up about Senator Joe Biden. Biden seems to be quite positive, energetic and confident. This despite the fact that he’s not doing all too well in the polls. The reason? He believes that he’ll defy expectations and end up with 15% or more of the votes in Iowa.

He has been ignored by the MSM, he says, but if he finishes in fourth place in Iowa - with 15% + of the votes - the MSM can’t ignore him any longer. This will, he argues, enable him to get his message out to more people in more states. (more…)

What can you say about a guy who has absolutely no chance whatsoever to win his party’s nomination for the presidency but who keeps fighting for respectability anyway? I’m torn between admiring Joe Biden’s spirit and wishing he’d just give up and I’m leaning toward the latter.

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That’s the headline at the New York Times:

Four years ago, the leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus began looking for a television outlet to co-sponsor and broadcast a presidential debate to address the concerns of minority voters.

Only one news channel made an acceptable proposal, and an unlikely channel at that: Fox News, in what some Democrats viewed as an effort to associate itself with a group that could help it make good on its claim of presenting “fair and balanced” news coverage.

But now that relationship is being shaken by the decision of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina to shun the debate, a move that has exposed fault lines among two major constituencies of the Democratic Party. While the withdrawal by the candidates frustrated members of the black caucus, it mollified liberals who had objected to the involvement of Fox News, whose programming includes some of the most conservative and pro-Republican commentary on the air.

So, what is the divide? Who want to participate and who do not? Well, lets start with the Democratic candidates who do want to participate in the debate at Fox: Joe Biden and…

That’s it. Joe Biden is the only Democratic candidate who has explicitly said that he will not withdraw from the debate. All the other candidates have either said that they will not appear on Fox, or have remained silent about the matter.

That’s going to be a great debate: “what do you think of this… let me see, Senator Biden?” “Well, here is what I think…” “Do you agree with that Senator Biden? “I think that my distinguished colleague said it marvelously, I agree completely. What a candidate!“