What I really want is for Biden to encapsulate the essence of the Obama campaign for the American public. Really define what change the Obama-Biden ticket will bring to the American public, while also spending time distinguishing themselves from the supposed change that McCain is promoting. I don't want him to focus on 'trying to win against Palin,' which I doubt he will do. I want Biden to focus on, "this is why the Obama-Biden ticket is viable and the McCain-Palin ticket is not," as opposed to trying to outlogic/outrhetoric Palin, which probably isn't too hard to do. But the American public doesn't really respond to logic as much as they do to emotion.
My assessment of how Palin will perform...
I think Palin did so well in the Alaskan debates because she was familiar with Alaskan matters. Now, that's a tremendous disadvantage to her on the national stage, because it's obvious that her whole focus in her life up to that point was on Alaskan issues. Look at the "what does a VP do" video. In that, she's talking about whether things she does as a VP will be beneficial to Alaskans. She is completely out of her element when discussing things such as foreign policy, economic issues, etc. Palin has to come through this completely with the 'likeability' factor. So, I don't think we'll get the Alaskan debates Palin, which was fairly competent, but we also won't get the complete trainwreck of Palin on Couric. I'm just trying to set my expectations to a reasonable level here. The thing is, Palin doesn't really have to be 100% logical. She just has to say fairly agreeable things that resonate with the public. If she can sit and 'cheerlead' McCain talking points, she will have exceeded expectations in this debate.
There's another side of me that really does think it will be a trainwreck because, although she will be able to spout talking points, she will only be able to do so for so long. When the moderator says, "Sarah, you have 5 minutes to talk about how you believe in solving the economic crisis." She'll be able to say something like, "Well, I like what Congress is doing. They are coming up with a bi-partisan solution. McCain has the answers because he warned of the crisis in 2005." After that, she's stuck with about 4 minutes and 30 seconds to talk. The thing with cramming is, it's easy to cram for subjects that you are competent in, but for something that you are completely unfamiliar with, it's nearly impossible to cram. For example, someone who has never taken accounting can't just open an accounting book and start cramming for accounting in two weeks and look competent. So how easy will it be for an Alaskan-issue focused politician to turn into a national and global focused politician?
Now, I really wonder how the media will react. It seems that this crisis has been beneficial in more ways than one to the Obama camp. Not only does it aid him because the public sees him as more competent than McCain on the economy, but it has also tilted the media his direction to some degree. After seeing their stocks plummet, some of these journalists and reporters are thinking, "Palin will be disasterous in office, and McCain, who admitted he doesn't know much about the economy, won't be any better." So even if Palin performs better than expected, I don't think the media will be all that generous to her like they would have been if this crisis had not occured.
Thursday can't come soon enough.
If not, no harm done. 