White House ’08: How will Palin do tonight?

Column by Chris Graham
[email protected]

The buildup to tonight’s vice-presidential debate is like that of the walkup to the Super Bowl. And if there’s one thing we can say about Super Bowls, this year’s excluded, well, they never live up to the hype, do they?

I doubt we get the knockout punch from Joe Biden that Democrats want – or the major-league gaffe from Sarah Palin that they want, more to the point. Neither do I think we’re going to get the campaign-saving performance from Palin that Republicans want and probably need.

I foresee a few clumsy zingers from both Biden and Palin, a lot of wonkish substance from Biden, a lot of talking around the issues from Palin, and in the end, we all go home happy, or as the case may be, unhappy.

Of course, that said, if voters leave tonight’s debate as I think they will, thinking basically that Biden is solid if talkative, and that Palin is pomp and circumstance without anything behind the music, that still ends up being Advantage Obama-Biden.

Just my two cents …