What To Expect From Palin Tonight, From The Man That Has Debated Her Before

Sarah Palin may be political neophyte on the national stage but that doesn't mean she hasn't been in a debate before. She did get to be a Mayor and Governor somehow, even if it was by underhanded means and backstabbing her way to the top of Alaska's government. Everyone is talking about how Biden should play his cards tonight, so I hope he talked to Andrew Halcro. When he ran against her and Tony Knowles, Andrew learned the hard way that Sarah Palin knows what to do in a debate.

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Palin is a master of the nonanswer. She can turn a 60-second response to a query about her specific solutions to healthcare challenges into a folksy story about how she's met people on the campaign trail who face healthcare challenges. All without uttering a word about her public-policy solutions to healthcare challenges.

In one debate, a moderator asked the candidates to name a bill the legislature had recently passed that we didn't like. I named one. Democratic candidate Tony Knowles named one. But Sarah Palin instead used her allotted time to criticize the incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski. Asked to name a bill we did like, the same pattern emerged: Palin didn't name a bill.

And when she does answer the actual question asked, she has a canny ability to connect with the audience on a personal level. For example, asked to name a major issue that had been ignored during the campaign, I discussed the health of local communities, Mr. Knowles talked about affordable healthcare, and Palin talked about ... the need to protect hunting and fishing rights.

So what does that mean for Biden? With shorter question-and-answer times and limited interaction between the two, he should simply ignore Palin in a respectful manner on the stage and answer the questions as though he were alone. Any attempt to flex his public-policy knowledge and show Palin is not ready for prime time will inevitably cast him in the role of the bully.

Truer words could not have been said. Biden should definitely not come off as a bully and in fact, if he plays his cards right he can turn her into the over-aggressive candidate that is over compensating for not knowing anything. She is definitely believes in a non-answer to everything (as we've seen with Katie Couric) and that is a tactic that can be countered. This isn't Alaska, we are talking about the Vice-Presidency and Joe Biden can take a policy and relate it to ordinary people. Sarah Palin may not be Robert Bork, but she is certainly someone that Biden can run circles around without coming off as a policy wonk.