Is Joe Biden vs. Sarah Palin the Great Debate?

While Americans wait with baited breath for the upcoming rumble at Washington University Thursday night between vice presidential nominees Democrat Senator Joe Biden and Republican Governor Sarah Palin, the nation finds itself precariously perched on the edge of an economic cliff with no clear, decisive leadership to pull it back to safer ground.

No doubt that among the topics to be discussed at this much anticipated debate will be the economic crisis and the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street that will have a lasting effect on Main Street for many years to come (that is if a final bill can be agreed upon at all.) Of course, invariably tied to the nation's economic dilemma is the war in Iraq, the need for energy independence and rising health care costs. It seems to never fail that the debate always comes back to a handful of specific talking points, these being whether to offer tax cuts and who will benefit from these tax cuts, regulation or deregulation of the markets, and finally whether cutting spending alone will put the nation back on it's feet.

So what exactly do the prospective VP candidates have to do to bolster their argument that their team has a plan that will work to put the country back on the track of economic prosperity? Biden will surly reiterate Barack Obama's assertion that it is the failed Bush-McCain policies of the last eight years that led the country down a dark and uncertain road. Palin's task, on the other hand, is to hammer home the McCain-Palin brand in terms of how their "maverick" credentials prove that their side is most able to bring about real "change". Expect to hear from both candidates all about Wall Street as well as Washington's culture of corruption and the need to rein in lobbyists and corporate greed. But of course, as they say, the devil's in the details when it comes to how those lofty goals will be accomplished.

No one could suggest that Biden is a babe in the woods when it comes to his knowledge in the foreign policy arena. For Palin to hold her own she must find a way to counter this disadvantage, while at the same time trying dispel an image that has developed in recent days that she is out of her league on this issue and others, an opinion that even conservative columnists like George Will and Kathleen Parker have begun to argue.

At the end of the day, both camps already have their bases locked up, thus it is the undecided, perhaps disheartened voter that sees no real plan from either side in addressing the troubles they face, from affording a tank of gas to a gallon of milk, that these candidates must win over. Indeed, it is the real life, day-to-day concerns of voters like these that Biden and Palin must show they understand; that they actually get it and moreover, if elected, they will fix it.

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/30/borger.palin/index.html?iref=newssearch
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=3d17bbf2-556a-480a-9dce-21b958a89663
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/george-will-palin-is-not_n_130647.html