The gaffe-prone Biden and memories of Anita Hill

Anita Hill at Harvard Law School, 9/14, via Wikipedia

My first thought when I learned that Joe Biden could be running for president in 2016 was Joe's reputation for gaffes - his problem keeping his mouth shut that most likely led President Obama to publicly thank Jill Biden, Joe's wife,  "for putting up with Joe."

However, we've just been informed that Jill Biden is "on board" with Joe's potential 2016 run.

Naturally, all this talk about the likelihood of Biden challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's nomination next year is bringing up an unpleasant memory or two in Biden's political history, e.g., the Anita Hill debacle. Politico's got the story:

If Joe Biden gets into the presidential race, allies and supporters of Hillary Clinton say there are just two words that will make a difference as he seeks support among women and African-Americans: Anita Hill. 

Nearly 24 years have passed since the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in which Hill, a respected law professor, was grilled under oath about alleged inappropriate sexual behavior by Thomas, her former boss. The graphic testimony gripped Washington and the country and spurred intense public conversations about sex, harassment and the nominee's charge of being subjected to a "high-tech lynching for uppity blacks.'' 

Biden's done a lot over the past 24 years, including authoring the landmark Violence Against Women Act and leading its four reauthorizations. But that hasn't erased the memories of how Biden presided over those hearings as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, blamed for doing little to stop the attacks on Hill and opting not to call three other witnesses who would have echoed Hill's charges of sexual harassment. Biden almost apologetically gave Thomas the benefit of the doubt, critics say, and that stance helped putThomas on the Supreme Court.

Ever since, for many women and blacks, Hill's name conjures an image of a black woman struggling under attack by a dozen powerful white men asking aggressive questions and questioning her character.
If Biden decides to run for president, his path to the Democratic nomination requires him to stand in the way of the woman who could be the first female president — and issues of sex and gender will be on the table whether either side likes it or not.

Read more:

Democrats consider run by gaffe-prone Joe Biden?

Dr. Jill Biden "not sold on potential Biden run?"

Well, the Huffington Post headline tells us, “Jill Not Sold On Potential Biden Run.” The reasons the article gives avoid one of Joe’s weaknesses that perhaps his wife knows better than anyone else. The article mentions the grief the family is experiencing in the aftermath of Beau Biden’s death as a major source of Jill’s resistance to Joe’s candidacy in 2016. Could be, though, the thought of her gaffe-prone husband being elected president makes her a little nervous; as well it should.

As President Obama hinted in his introductory remarks in March 2010 at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia, Vice President Biden could be a problem now and then:  Introduced by Dr. Jill Biden, the vice president's wife, Obama said, "Thank you Dr. Biden for that outstanding introduction, and for putting up with Joe"

You have to wonder how many heads of state would be as gracious as Jill in putting up with Joe Biden’s unfortunate gaffes.

But then anti-Hillary Democrats are becoming increasingly desperate in their search for a candidate to oppose Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary. The politically inexperienced Elizabeth Warren has enough common sense to refuse to run; Socialist maverick Bernie Sanders would have to lunge even farther to the center than Obama did in order to get elected; and Joe Biden, most well known for his gaffes, would likely embarrass the Dems or more accurately, the Dims, even before his nomination.

It’s time for the Democratic Party to get its act together and throw its full support behind its most experienced, politically savvy, and authentic candidate  – what you see is what you get with Hillary.

Jon Stewart on Obama’s Libya speech: “America at not-war” (watch video)

Jon Stewart's Daily Show on "America at not-war" manages to take a poke at Obama and each president back to Eisenhower. It's worth watching to the end of Parts One and Two of the video below to see Stewart conclude, soaring rhetoric aside, OIL is the reason we're in Libya.

(I just updated this post at 9:17 a.m. to include Part 3 of the series.)

Part One:

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Part Two:

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Part 3

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Secretary Clinton at the first Global Chiefs of Mission Conference

      Secretary Clinton hosts a luncheon on Feb. 2, 2011 with Vice President Biden for the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference, at the Department of State. State Department photo by Michael Gross, Feb. 3, 2011.

On Feb. 2, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference at the Dept. of State in Washington, DC. Take note: the conference was planned prior to the Egyptian uprising.

Here’s Secretary Clinton:

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. (Applause.) Thank you all very much. Thank you. It is such a pleasure to welcome all of you back to Washington for the first ever, in American history, all-hands-on-deck ambassadorial conference. Chiefs of Mission from every corner of the world who may not ever get a chance to meet each other or exchange ideas are here today for the gathering that we have been looking forward to.

We’ve wanted to do this for some time. We figured early February would be quiet, not much going on. (Laughter.) What better time to pull you from your posts and responsibilities? And, of course, Margaret Scobey from Egypt is not here. But I am very grateful that we’re going to have a chance for you to interact with the senior leadership of the Department. I will be back tomorrow afternoon for a Q&A session, and I want everybody to be fully prepared. Today, you will have a chance to hear from Mike Mullen – Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs at lunch – who will make remarks and do a Q&A. And we have some other surprises along the way.

For a complete transcription of Secretary Clinton’s address, go here.

Chessmaster Obama Morphs into the Polar Bear in “Don’t Break the Ice” Board Game

cross-posted at the Widdershins

The cool objectivity of Amy Walter’s political analysis is almost unnerving at times, especially to one accustomed to sorting out the spin of pseudo-liberal pundits from their mirror images on the right. In Walter’s On the Trail post yesterday at National Journal, she asks, “what if congressional candidates in 2010 have to defend economic results that aren’t there?”

In 2012, President Obama will have had four years to see if the gamble on big federal outlays into a stimulus package, auto and bank bailouts, and energy investments has paid off. For congressional Democrats up in 2010, however, the long view isn't politically feasible.

At a recent Christian Science Monitor breakfast, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer handed out a tightly spaced one-pager that listed 13 "major initiatives" that have been enacted into law since Obama took office. To be sure, it's an impressive list. But the next election will be a referendum on the economy. Period. If things are looking good, then Democrats can make the case for why it's important to keep their party in charge. If it's not, then all the bragging about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act or Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights won't mean much.

At this point, it's tough to argue that the stimulus has indeed stimulated the economy.

The bottom line is that right now, there's little tangible proof that all the outflows have made much of an impact. In a new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, about as many people think General Motors will be profitable in five years as think it will be out of business. Meanwhile, just 9 percent in a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll say the economy has turned the corner, with 37 percent expecting it to get worse. The good news, if you want to call it that, is that just four months ago, more than half of voters (54 percent) thought the economy would get worse.

Walter takes a jibe or two at Joe Biden, “Obama’s “cheerleader-in-chief for stimulus spending:”

Yet, watching Vice President Joe Biden's awkward attempts to promote the benefits of the stimulus package suggests that congressional Democrats will have their work cut out for them. A greater effort by the White House to get the money out the door could help matters. At this point, however, it's tough to argue that the stimulus has indeed stimulated the economy.

On "Meet the Press" this Sunday, when asked by moderator David Gregory about the rationale behind the administration's estimate of 150,000 jobs created or saved by the stimulus, Biden replied: "There's an econometric model that economists have been using for decades to correlate the economic circumstances of the nation with the creation of jobs.... It's a model the Council of Economic Advisers have used to come up with that 150,000 jobs."

Um, what? You lost me at "econometric model." Just imagine trying to put this into a compelling 30-second commercial.

Walter concludes:

For now, Obama still has a reservoir of good will built up with the public, and his high approval numbers may help insulate members of his party.

Ultimately, though, watching Democrats these days reminds me of the kids' board game "Don't Break the Ice." In that game, a plastic polar bear was placed on top of an elevated board made up of individual cubes of "ice." The goal of the game was to knock out as many pieces as possible without sending the polar bear crashing to the ground. Sometimes the polar bear came down after one piece was knocked out; sometimes he could still be standing even as his ice world crumbled all around him.

Obama won't necessarily be the polar bear on the floor in 2012. But a lagging economy could take out quite a bit of the Democrats' board.

In addition to the questions raised by Walter, the recent funding of the current Administration’s continuation of war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan reminds me of candidate Obama’s boast about how much money the government would save from defense spending once he took office and magically ended America’s dual military adventures abroad.

Politico’s Hilarious Video of Late Night’s Take on Obama’s Speech

Ya gotta watch Politico’s summary of the late night’s take on Obama’s speech:

Maureen Dowd: Prince Charming Obama Losing his Luster

Photo courtesy of LATimes

Good heavens! I’m getting worried about myself. This post will be the second time in the past several days that I’ve linked to Maureen Dowd in appreciation of her caustic style of truth telling. She’s been diverted from trashing the Clintons by the huge whoosh from the sudden deflation of Obama euphoria - like E. J. Dionne, a chronic Obamaphile, signed off his column recently by warning that no president has ever been seen walking on water !!!

Here’s Modo on the Potomac’s Postpartisan Depression:

Once upon a time, America thought Prince Charming would glide in and kiss her, reviving her from a coma induced by a poison apple of greed, deceit, carelessness, recklessness and overreaching.

But then the prince got distracted, seeing Lincoln in the mirror, and instead gave the kiss of life to a bunch of flat-lining Republican tax-cut fetishists.

Somehow the most well-known person on the planet lost control of the economic message to someone named Eric Cantor.

(And Larry Summers ended up making Henry Paulson seem riveting.)

In his first weeks padding around a White House that still has nails on the walls waiting for new pictures, and phone and e-mail kinks, Barack Obama could not locate the bully pulpit and ended up being bullied.

Republicans, pulled out of their existential lethargy and re-energized by the president’s charm offensive, immediately mounted an offensive against him. Just as Michael Bloomberg learned the perils of cuddling a groundhog when it bit him, Mr. Obama learned the perils of coddling conservatives.

Pete Sessions, a conservative from Waco, Tex., and the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, warned that they could become an insurgency, having learned more about insurgencies “because of the Taliban.” (Yes, that’s the same Taliban that was allowed to regenerate by bumbling Republican leaders.)

Obama advisers are right to crow that the president’s civility to Republicans will be popular with the public. But the carrot-stick ratio was way out of whack. Mr. Obama should have written up a kosher (as in pork-free) bill that Americans could trust — and Republicans couldn’t as easily mock — and jammed it through.

It’s a huge, scary moment, with trillions of dollars and millions of jobs flying out the window. Vice President Joseph Biden, in another Cassandra moment, told House Democrats that even if the White House does everything right, “there’s still a 30 percent chance we’ll get it wrong.”

The president and his aides seemed a bit snow-blinded by the White House, overwhelmed and slow to understand that they were losing the high ground and the whip hand. They couldn’t even get their pick for commerce secretary, the Republican Senator Judd Gregg, to vote for their stimulus bill; he said he would abstain.

Those in the president’s circle were too caught up in more narrow concerns, like how their relationships with the president and the capital were shaking out; whether they could breathe on this new planet with the rarefied air of cool planes and helicopters; and whether W.’s mind-boggling mountain of garbage would trash Democratic candidates in 2010 and doom Mr. Obama to one term.

“I would rather do the right thing and have one term than be mediocre and have two,” Mr. Obama told House Democrats at their Williamsburg retreat Thursday night. The lawmakers had been feeling disillusioned that they were carrying Mr. Obama’s water on the bill, while Obama aides triangulated and promised that the bill would “improve” in the Senate.

But here’s the kicker – Instead of her usual all out assault on any woman daring to set foot on the national stage, Modo actually gets in a dig at Obama for throwing Nancy Pelosi under the bus:

Nancy Pelosi told her leadership team that she had told the president, “I don’t mind you driving the bus over me, but I don’t appreciate your backing it up and running over me again and again.”

Will wonders never cease?

Read more:

Hillary Clinton Sworn in as SoS Again: Watch Video

Chevy Chase showed up, Joe Biden stumbled, and Hillary Clinton kept a sense of humor along with her usual poise and grace throughout her second swearing-in-ceremony as secretary of state.

ABC News' Martha Raddatz and Jennifer Duck report: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood alongside former President Bill Clinton, mother Dorothy Rodham and daughter Chelsea Clinton for the formal swearing in of the 67th Secretary of State.

But the ceremony wasn't as formal as one might expect.

Before the event began, actor and comedian Chevy Chase distracted the crowd by standing in front of a line full of cameras blocking their shots. He joked, "Am I in the way?" as the cameras snapped away at guest who seemed just a bit unlike the others in the room.

Just weeks after taking a jab at Chief Justice Roberts for his missteps when administering the oath for President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden stumbled on a few words himself as he did the honors administering the oath for Clinton. Roberts twist of words caused the precautionary White House to swear in President Obama for a second time, but Clinton's ceremony today was already her second -- a special ceremony for friends and cameras to see, unfortunately for the VP.

Before his stumble Biden said he was a "Hillary Clinton fan."

Read more and watch video clip here.

Kirsten Gillibrand sworn in to the U.S. Senate Today (video)

Watch Kirsten Gillibrand sworn into the U.S. Senate today by Vice President Joe Biden:

Has Sarah Palin Reached the Status of Permanent Celebrity?

photo credits: Politico

Sarah Palin’s continued celebrity status must be giving the misogynous wing - that would be the extreme lefties - of the Democratic Party hissy fits. You can get a hint of the Far Left’s distress just by reading Doonesbury. The strip’s author, Gary Trudeau, has been making fun of the Alaska governor and former GOP VP candidate every day for the past six days. In yesterday’s strip, Boopsie says to B.D., “I thought you disapproved of celebrity candidates.” Evidently not: in today’s strip, B.D. is pleased to hear Palin reassure TV viewers that if God opens the door for her in 2012, she won’t blink.

In the meantime, Politico is headlining Palin as “A Digital Superstar.” Here’s the evidence as presented by Charles Mahtesian:

“Three weeks after the Republican ticket suffered a sweeping defeat at the polls, Sarah Palin continues to dominate search engine queries, cable news and online video sites.

“The only American politician who generates comparable interest is President-elect Barack Obama. No one else is close.

“Palin was the most popular Lycos search from the week she joined the ticket continuously through last Sunday, some two weeks after the election, when she was dethroned by Paris Hilton, the celebutante whom John McCain famously compared to Barack Obama.

“The Alaska governor now ranks fourth, just one spot below Obama, on the weekly Lycos 50 list.

‘“People are still searching for her in record numbers,’ said Kathy O’Reilly, a spokeswoman for Lycos. ‘How bizarre is that? Obama is the president-elect after the most historic election of all time and you’d think he would be dominating search activity and he only now is going ahead of her.’

‘“Palin has been the subject of intense online fascination since her introduction as the Republican nominee on Aug. 29. In September, the Anchorage Daily News reported a 928 percent spike in traffic, according to Nielsen Online. Her mid-October ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance drove the show’s highest rating in 14 years, and her Oct. 2 debate with Joe Biden was the most watched vice presidential debate ever — drawing more viewers than any of the three presidential debates between McCain and Obama.”

There’s a lot more. And hey, don't forget to leave a comment!

Vice President-Elect Biden’s Endorsement of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State

Photo credits: Huffington Post file photo

Barack Obama reportedly selected Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate for his expertise in foreign affairs; Biden’s most recent senate post was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In the run up to the expected announcement of Hillary Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, Helene Cooper reports at the NY Times that Biden has privately told people he recognizes he will not be the point man on foreign policy.

According to Cooper, ‘“Mr. Obama’s aides say Mr. Biden has backed the decision to appoint Mrs. Clinton secretary of state. ‘If he had made an argument against it, it would have carried a lot of weight,’ a senior aide to the transition said. ‘He was totally in support of it.’”

After all their raucus cheering in support of Joe Biden as VP, you’d think his endorsement of Clinton for the position at state would hold some significance for Arianna Huffington and other leaders of Obama’s online shock troops. But so far no signs of rationality have appeared in the latest eruption of pathological Hillary-hatred from the extreme left wing of the blogosphere.

Biden Muzzled While Palin Speaks Out

Both the old and the new media prefer attacking women candidates and following Hillary Clinton’s prolonged battering, Gov. Sarah Palin has become the target of the unceasing stream of sewage – more formally known as misogyny - spewed out by the press.

In comparison to its treatment of Palin, the media has given Sen. Joe Biden, her Democratic counterpart, a free pass. So it’s kind of surprising to read Dana Millbank’s post today in the Washington Sketch (Washington Post) about the recent “muzzling” of the garrulous, gaffe-prone Biden by the Obama camp.

Millbank reports:

“The muzzling of Biden seems unnatural and inhumane, like taking a proud lion into captivity. Biden, who once scolded Sarah Palin for ducking reporters, hasn't given a news conference since Sept. 7. The king of the rhetorical jungle hasn't taken questions from voters in a town hall forum since Sept. 10, when he famously said that Hillary Clinton is "more qualified than I am to be vice president" and "might have been a better pick than me." He doesn't even do much chitchat with supporters at events since he was caught on tape on one such occasion contradicting Obama's energy policy.

“Now even Palin takes questions from reporters on her campaign plane. But the wordiest man in Washington has to make his remarks short, sweet and canned.”

Read more.

Comparing Sarah Palin to the Democrats' Previous Vice-Presidential Pick John Edwards and Today’s Joe Biden

Conservatives in the media continue to put liberal pundits to shame by pointing out the sexist assault on Sarah Palin, which has reached a point beyond what even Hillary Clinton underwent during the corrupt Democratic primary and its rigged convention.

In the National Review Online, Victor David Hanson reports on “what Sarah Palin has taught us about ourselves,” and it’s not flattering.

Hanson writes:

“Clearly, it is more than we would have ever wished to know about ourselves.

“First, there turns out to be no standard of objectivity in contemporary journalism. Palin’s career as a city councilwoman, mayor, and governor of Alaska was never seen as comparable to, or — indeed, in terms of executive experience — more extensive than, Barack Obama’s own legislative background in Illinois and Washington. Somehow we forgot that a mother of five taking on the Alaskan oil industry and the entrenched male hierarchy was somewhat more challenging than Barack Obama navigating the sympathetic left-wing identity politics of Chicago.

“So we seem to have forgotten that the standards of censure of her vice-presidential candidacy were not applied equally to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. The media at times seems unaware of this embarrassment, namely that their condemnation of Sarah Palin as inexperienced equally might apply to Barack Obama — and to such a degree that by default we were offered the lame apology (reiterated by Colin Powell himself) that Obama’s current impressive campaigning, not his meager political accomplishments, was already an indication of a successful tenure as president. The result is that we now know more about the Palin pregnancies — both of mother and daughter — that we do the relationships of Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, Reverend Wright, and Father Pfleger with our possible next president.”

Read more.

Hillary Clinton on Entertainment Tonight (video)

Here’s a great video posted at HillaryClinton.com by blogger Kate Sokolov who writes: “Yesterday, Hillary sat down with Entertainment Tonight's Kevin Frazier to talk about our new grassroots volunteer program Hillary Sent Me!, the first Presidential debate, and everything Hillary is doing to help elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden. This is just part one of a two part interview. Tune in tonight to hear the rest of her interview or check back here for the video!”
To watch the video go here.

Meet Sarah Palin: “the gun-toting hockey mom who blazed into history at the Republican convention.”

Photo Credits: Richard Perry/The New York Times

Allesandra Stanley at the NY Times today offers a much more colorful take on the debate last night between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden than presented in my earlier post linking to Foon Rhee at Political Intel.

Stanley’s theme is that the debate wasn’t as much between Palin and Biden as it was between Palin and the Palin parodied on SNL by Tina Fey. I would argue, however, that Stanley’s description of the Palin onstage in St. Louis was a parody in itself. In a backhanded kind of way, though, Stanely does give the feisty governor of Alaska her due.

Stanley writes:

‘“And Ms. Palin was the one who set the tone, making Mr. Biden sound stuffy before he had a chance to make her look unsteady. She bounded onto the stage, shook hands with her opponent and said brightly, ‘Hey, can I call you Joe?’

‘“He said yes, then addressed her as ‘Governor Palin.’

‘“She twinkled, cocked her head, and spoke as plainly as she could. ‘Darn right it was predator lenders,’ she told the moderator, Gwen Ifill of PBS, when asked who was to blame for the mortgage meltdown. Her sentences had lots of pep and patriotism, and few g’s at the end of her words — ‘You betcha’ and ‘Get down to gettin’ business done ‘and ‘doggone it.’

‘“Expectations for both candidates were low, but the expectations for the debate were almost absurdly high — cable news commentators led up to the event like children on a Halloween sugar bender, deliriously excited by what The Washington Times described as a ‘Thrilla in Manila’ showdown.”’

Read more.

MSNBC’s Today Interview with George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro (video)

If you’d like a great warm up for tonight’s vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, then watch this video of MSNBC Today’s interview with George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro who debated one another as vice presidential candidates 24 years ago.

Biden and Palin Scheduled to Debate at 9 p.m. Eastern Tonight in St. Louis

Photo credits: Cleveland.com

The 90-minute face off between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin is scheduled to begin this Thursday evening at 9 p.m. Eastern. PBS’ Gwen Ifill will moderate the one time only vice-presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis. I’m betting the Palin-Biden confrontation won’t be nearly as boring as the first presidential round between McCain and Obama.

Thursday night’s Palin-Biden Debate Could Be Fun!

Excitement is building for the 90-minute face off between the garrulous Joe Biden and “hockey mom” Sarah Palin this Thursday night at 9 p.m. Eastern. PBS’ Gwen Ifill will moderate the one time only vice-presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis. I predict the Palin-Biden debate won’t be nearly as boring as the first presidential round between McCain and Obama.

The word is out across the Internet: “Underestimate Sarah Palin at your own risk.” LA Times staff writers Braun and Hamburger put it like this:

“During Palin's brief exposure to the high-stakes environment of political debates, she has unnerved both her handlers and her opponents. At times she has been handicapped by her lax approach to learning the nuances of policy and state issues, but she has also projected a Reaganesque ability to offer up pithy answers and charm on camera.”

Palin gained experience while running successfully for governor of Alaska. Braun and Hamburger describe her style in debating political opponents:

“Palin had ready answers on tough questions about social concerns such as native needs, abortion and assisted suicide. Sometimes her remarks seemed glib, but she was usually poised and sometimes kicked back at her opponents and her questioners when they took the offensive.

‘“Larry Persily, a panelist questioner in the campaign's final televised debate, said Palin flummoxed her rivals ‘like Muhammad Ali dancing around the ring.’ She avoided statements and tough questions that could have impaled her and repeatedly stung at her opponents. And Palin, a former sportscaster, was easily the most comfortable in front of the camera.

‘“She knows television,’ said Persily, who participated in other debates and has watched Palin closely for years. ‘She knows how to look at her interviewer.’

“Palin saved her most devastating riposte for the final question of the debate, when Persily asked the three candidates whether they would hire their opponents for a state job.

“Knowles and Halcro offered halting jokes. But when it was Palin's turn, she pounced.

‘“Smiling at Halcro, who recited reams of statistics by rote, Palin observed that the businessman ‘would make the most awesome statistician the state could ever look for.’

‘“As the debate audience laughed, Palin pivoted to Knowles, who had started his political career as an Anchorage restaurateur. ‘Do they need a chef down in Juneau?’ Palin asked, smiling as she turned the verbal knife. ‘I know Mr. Knowles is really good at that.’

“Two years on, Halcro and Knowles admit they are still baffled how their mastery of policy and state issues was trumped by Palin's breezy confidence and feel-good answers.

‘“When you try to prove she doesn't know anything, you lose, because audiences are enraptured by her,’ Halcro said. ‘And her biting comments give you a sense of how competitive she is. Anybody who doesn't take her seriously does so at their peril.”’

Tune in Thursday night at 9 for your one and only chance to see Palin and Biden go at it.

To read the LA Times article in its entirety, go here.

VP Debate Prep: Let Sarah be Sarah

Never mind that the experienced Joe Biden has flubbed up every time he’s opened his mouth since chosen as Obama’s running mate, the media has focused its negative attention on Sarah Palin. After the Republican convention the popular Alaska governor was drawing such huge crowds the in-the-tank for-Obama media has felt compelled to go all out to destroy her.

So it’s good to learn the Republican camp is providing Palin the support, encouragement, and coaching she needs for the upcoming VP debate this Thursday.

Monica Langley at the WSJ reports:

“The McCain campaign moved its top officials inside Gov. Sarah Palin's operation Sunday to prepare for what is certain to be the most important event of her vice-presidential campaign: her debate on Thursday with Democrat Joe Biden.

“Additionally, at the urging of the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, Gov. Palin will leave late Monday for his Arizona ranch to prepare for the high-stakes debate.

“The moves follow several shaky performances by Gov. Palin last week and come amid concern and grumbling from Republicans, and even a few queries from her husband, Todd Palin, according to campaign operatives and Republican officials.

“McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and senior adviser Steve Schmidt are planning to coach the candidate ahead of the debate, according to senior advisers. They traveled Sunday to meet the Republican vice-presidential nominee in Philadelphia. After her appearance with Sen. McCain at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, these top officials plan to fly with her on Monday to Sen. McCain's ranch in Sedona, Ariz., which they hope she will find a comforting place to prep, these people said.

“More broadly, the McCain campaign aims to halt what it sees as a perceived decline in the crispness and precision of Gov. Palin's latest remarks as well as a fall in recent polls, according to several advisers and party officials.”

Read more.

What’s This? Obama Camp Calls Palin a Terrific Debater?

Mike Allen reports at Politico:

‘“Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters Saturday that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, is ‘a terrific debater’ who could give Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden (D-Del.) a run for his money when they meet Thursday.

‘“We’ve looked at tapes of Gov. Palin’s debates, and she’s a terrific debater,’ Plouffe told reporters on a conference call. ‘She has performed very, very well. She’s obviously a skilled speaker. We expect she’ll give a great performance next Thursday.’

‘The single vice presidential debate will be at 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Lowering expectations is a common campaign practice before a debate. But the Obama campaign's claims will surprise the Republicans who have begun to fear the debate following Palin’s performance in network interviews. The Obama campaign says they have nothing to worry about.”

Read more.