Text size:

What Biden, Palin must accomplish in their debate

Stakes particularly high for Palin after once-favorable rating plummeted.

BY CRAIG GORDON | craig.gordon@newsday.com

9:14 PM EDT, October 1, 2008

WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin can't sound like comedian Tina Fey.

Joe Biden can't sound like, well, Joe Biden.

The two vice-presidential contenders square off in their only debate Thursday with supporters on both sides watching nervously - worried that their candidate will flub their last best chance to score points with voters.

The stakes are particularly high for Palin. She has watched her once-favorable ratings with voters plummet amid growing public doubts about whether she's up to the job.

A serious anti-Palin backlash even has some Republicans questioning whether she should remain on John McCain's ticket. It's been so rough that Tina Fey, impersonating Palin, got laughs on " Saturday Night Live" last week simply by repeating verbatim Palin's rather jumbled explanation of the Wall Street bailout - a bad sign for any politician.

But Democrats have their own worries. Some consider Biden is a ticking time bomb in his own right, a 35-year Senate veteran with a reputation for talking - and talking and talking - like one. Fellow Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said yesterday that the gaffe-prone Biden has a "tendency to say things that are kind of stupid."

Look for two markedly different strategies in St. Louis. Democrats expect Biden to use a low-key, rope-a-dope approach, defending running mate Barack Obama and keeping the focus on McCain with little direct interaction with Palin.

Republicans believe Palin will come out more aggressively in hopes of rebuilding her image and giving McCain's campaign a game-changing moment it badly needs, with his poll numbers slumping.

Here is what each candidate must do in a showdown many experts say is likely to be the most-watched vice-presidential debate in history:

PALIN

1. Show she's up to the job

Early on, voters cut Palin some slack as a newcomer because she had a fresh and appealing style. But her recent TV interview stumbles have caused many voters to turn against her. A new Associated Press poll found 25 percent of voters say Palin has the right experience to be president, down from 41 percent a month ago.

"She's got to prove herself times 100," said conservative strategist Greg Mueller. "There needs to be an ability to make the American public feel more comfortable that she can be president of the United States."

2. Get her mojo back

Palin needs to remind people why they liked her in the first place - and she's already hinted at how she'll accomplish that, by reminding voters that she's a "normal Joe Six-Pack American," just like them, not a Washington insider. She said she and husband Todd lost money in the Wall Street downturn and once struggled to get health coverage - kitchen-table issues designed to say, "I'm one of you."

3. Beat back the gotcha

That approach also might allow her to inoculate herself against any curveball question moderator Gwen Ifill throws her way - and some experts said Palin might consider admitting upfront she doesn't know the name of every world leader but does understand the problems of everyday Americans.

4. Don't look too scripted

Palin was criticized by some voters for seeming like she was reading off mental note cards in her first TV interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson. Some Republicans fault the McCain campaign for "over-coaching" Palin - breaking her confidence and natural speaking flair. Stephen Llano, who teaches a presidential debates course at St. John's University, urged Palin to boil her pitch down to a half-dozen messages to hammer home in the debate.

5. Don't worry about outsmarting Biden