The Main Event: Blogging the Debate

The game is on! In an hour and twenty minutes it will be Biden and Palin, face to face, mono au mono, no holds barred.

Actually there will be a lot of holds barred as Biden will attempt to avoid gaffes without at the same time appearing to be too policy-wonkish, while Palin will be attempting to avoid answering any questions that call for actual knowledge of national policy matters.

With the debate ready to start in just over an hour, here are my predictions. See if I'm not right:

• Watch for performing a kind of verbal jujitsui to bring it back to familiar ground. If the she gets a question like: "What policies need to be put in place to avoid the kind of financial crisis we are currently in?" She will respond: "Well, I would say the real issue here is what this has done to people in the kind of town I used to be mayor of. My neighbor, Marge Smith, lost her hair dressing business when the markets went south this week. That's the kind of person John McCain and I will be fighting for when we get to Washington."
• Biden will address Sarah as Governor Palin to show respect for her office. Palin will say "Joe" to show how down to earth she is. "We don't stand on titles," will be the not so subtle message.
• Both candidates will speak about the opposite's running mate rather than about each other. Sarah will go on the attack smiling as she all but accuses Obama of selling out to terrorists.
  
• Palin will make sure we know just what down-home cooking, Walmart shoppin', five kid raisin', "aw shucks" kind of person she is; an every-woman that represents the little people that are ignored by the high muckety-mucks in Washington. Populism will be poppin' out all over.
• Biden will also play the populist card. It will be blue collar union factory worker populism versus small town middle America populism. Palin will be suggesting elitism, but it will be a difficult card to play with Biden on the opposite podium. He's about as un-elitist as a Democrat can be.
  
• Palin is going to do her best to get Biden riled to push him into making one of his infamous gaffes. Don't think she'll suceed. But she'll try, all the time putting on that plastic almost smile she wields so effectively.