From almost the moment Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain's VP candidate there has been an excitement about the prospect of the VP debates. There are a whole lot of people, myself included who believe that there might be more people watching the VP debate tomorrow than watched teh Presidential debate last Friday. Now there has also been a lot of hand wringing from Democrats and Progressives as this day drew closer over whether or not Joe Biden would be able to reign himself in and not over do it. All of the pundits have said and continue to say that Joe has to walk a fine line. They think he has to be strong without being condescending. They feel he has to be knowledgeable without beating her up. But I have come to a different conclusion based not just on Biden's style but also Palin's deficiencies which have been exposed here lately. Follow me over the fold to what I think will be the winning strategy that we will see tomorrow.
How do you win a fight when you can't land any punches? Its a very hard question and one that Joe Biden has to answer to win this debates. In my opinion the way to get the job done is to use indirect attacks to push your opponent in the direction of your choice and then lead them right over a cliff. Sarah Palin has shown us very recently in an interview with Katie Couric that she has a very limited knowledge of John Mccain's career and time in Congress. Her inability to name a bill where John McCain was pushing for more regulation exposed this fundamental weakness to me and I do not believe it will be any better tomorrow night. Now that I want Joe Biden to attack the top of the ticket is of course not some ground breaking idea. Other's have suggested this tactic also. But its HOW I would envision him attacking the ticket that might differentiate me.
Joe Biden preceded John McCain in the Senate and in fact John McCain was a Navy liason under Biden before he went into politics. For that reason Joe Biden has intimate knowledge of John McCain's stances over the years as well as his voting record. So what I would propose Joe Biden do is to as many times is as possible respond to the questions not only with the Obama/Biden policy stance but also with a contrast to John McCain's voting record or policy stances. Joe Biden gave a scathing critique of John McCain a couple of weeks ago but it didnt get a lot of play in the media. But he was reciting chapter and verse all of the wrong policy positions of John McCain so he is already familiar with the talking points. If he comes out swinging at McCain it will destroy the Palin gameplan.
You see Sarah Palin will want to be able to tell her own story and be folksy so that she can get around tough questions and get away with out answering them. That was her approach in the debate videos I have seen from when she ran for Governer of Alaska and that has been her approach in the interviews she has given so far. But if Joe Biden is not only answering with knowledge and aptitude but also pointing out different times that John McCain has had the opposite view point he immediately puts Sarah Palin on the defensive on two levels
- She has to defend her ticket's positions.
- She has to know what John McCain's view point and voting records are on the different situations.
What I believe they have been force feeding her over these past few weeks has been talking points on the economy, energy, and foreign policy. I would pretty much doubt that she even knows there is a such thing as a Supreme Leader in Iran. They have just taught her about Ahmadenijhad and maybe Chavez. But the one area I am almost positive they have neglected to bring her up to speed on is her running mate. It not just that she couldnt think of a time when McCain supported regulation when everyone was questioning his conversion from a fundamental deregulator. It also goes back to this stance on whether or not to go into Pakistan to get Bin Ladin. No one should forget that her saying that we should do whatever it takes at that cheesesteak shop was not the first time she had uttered those words. In the Charlie Gibson interview she said essentially the same thing but it didn't get the play that it did this time.
I personally believe this is the easiest way to victory for Joe Biden. By continuing to attack John McCain he eliminates any chance for Sarah Palin to attack him. She will already likely be nervous and it will serve to keep her off balance, worried that she will misstate the official McCain Palin position. No one will be able to complain that Joe Biden was too hard on her nor that he was a wuss either. He also won't have to do any phony praise or phony graciousness that he would have to do if he were attacking her directly. He can zing away at John McCain and what could Sarah Palin possibly do? She can't possibly talk about the main McCain talking point and that is experience when it comes to Obama. And I am pretty sure that whatever attacks she is getting programmed into her head will go out of the window when she is trying to remember or recall what side of each issue she is supposed to be on. It can't help her that John McCain has flip flopped on every major issue of this election either.
So I look forward to this epic battle later on today and I anticipate a Joe Biden victory, going away!
Bonus this is why I am a HUGE Carville fan!