Program Note:

Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join John King for the best analysis of the Vice Presidential debate!

The Next Vice President:
Biden-Palin Debate
Saturday and Sunday, 9p ET
 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________

John King | BIO
Chief National Correspondent

It was a rude intrusion on the morning-after analysis of the one and only debate between the vice presidential candidates: a new government report showing the US economy lost 159,000 jobs in September – the ninth month in a row of job losses.

Tough economic news just as the House opened debate, for a second time, on a $700 billion rescue plan aimed at stabilizing the financial and credit markets. This time, the House approved the plan, and by Friday afternoon President Bush had signed it into law.

Proof that in the big picture, the face-off between the running mates has a limited shelf life as the dominant political story. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.

It was a big event for two very different audiences, maybe three.

First: Republicans.

Keep reading

David Gergen
AC360 Contributor
CNN Senior Political Analyst

Republican conservatives should be happy tonight: the Sarah Palin who showed up for the debate was the same spirited, authentic woman when she was announced, not the one who sat down with Katie Couric.

While she made a few small mistakes and often avoided direct answers, she deserves credit for performing as well as she did in a moment of huge pressure.

Her problem was that the Joe Biden who showed up delivered the best debate performance of his life. He was extremely well informed, especially on foreign policy, and he argued his case with force and occasional eloquence. Like Palin, he didn't make any big mistakes either — and importantly, he was never condescending toward her.

Read more

Amy Holmes: 10:40p ET – Palin: A+. The plus is for wildly exceeding expectations. She more than held her own. She was polished, direct, folksy, and on message. She stressed her personal experience both as a mom and as a governor, from the kitchen table to the executive branch, her record as a reformer and bipartisan deal maker. She even got Biden to agree with her. Read more...

Roland Martin: Expectations are high for Palin AND Biden. Many of you read my commentary this week on CNN.com and I haven’t changed my opinion.

I’m tired of Washington journalists continuing to say that the expectations are low, and the bar even lower, for Gov. Sarah Palin.

And the same goes for Sen. Joe Biden. Read more...

Amy Holmes: 9:40p ET – Were those Katie Couric interviews a devious head fake? I've heard Biden say at least twice now that he agrees with Palin. First on the issue of windfall profits, and then on the issue of gay marriage. Regarding the first, he actually said he and Obama would like to do what the Governor did in Alaska. Economic conservatives won't like it. But for debate purposes: advantage Palin.

Candy Crowley: 9:35p ET - Palin veers off course — the question is about helping consumers with crushing debt, and she's responding with energy policy. Politicians frequently change the subject, but this was a pretty obvious 180.

Read more

Bill Schneider
CNN Senior Political Analyst

10:36p ET: Palin's primary strength is her outside of Washington status. She doesn't act like an insider, she doesn't talk like an insider, and a lot of voters may respond to that.

10:24p ET: Palin's answers do not lack confidence, they lack coherence.

10:20p ET: Reform, corruption, maverick…these are words that Palin often uses, but she needs to define them.

10:16p ET: Palin say's she'll be a maverick, but she doesn't talk about how her administration would be different from McCain. She isn't drawing any kind of distinction.

10:14p ET: Biden's in an awkward position…Biden voted for the use of force in Iraq, Obama came out against it from the beginning.

It's a problem that he shares with Hillary Clinton.

Read more of Bill Schneider's notes

Program Note:
It's the showdown everyone's been waiting for.
Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join the best political team on television for your front row seat!

Debate Night in America: Vice Presidential Debate
Tonight, beginning 8p ET

__________________________________________________________________________________

Suzanne Malveaux | BIO
CNN White House Correspondent

I talked to Obama campaign spokeswoman Linda Douglass who just arrived at debate site. Nothing surprising regarding Joe Biden, just some points:

- Biden is feeling “pretty relaxed.”

- He has lots of family members coming to the debate (he’s got famously big family.)

- “Biden will make a clear convincing case that the Obama-Biden ticket will bring change from the last 8 years of the failed Bush policies.”

- “Will provide a sharp contrast to the McCain-Palin ticket, and argue that the opposing candidate is more of the same.”

- They “expect Palin will deliver strong sharp, pointed attacks.”

- Biden will respond by “trying to stay connected to voters. He’ll do his best to avoid getting drawn into game-playing.”

Keep reading

Program Note:
It's the showdown everyone's been waiting for.
Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join the best political team on television for your front row seat!

Debate Night in America: Vice Presidential Debate
Tonight, beginning 8p ET

__________________________________________________________________________________

James Carville
CNN Political Analyst

Let's just call this the NASCAR debate. If Palin doesn't crash, the spectators will surely be left feeling like they didn't get their money's worth. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to tonight's Vice-Presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri.

Shortly after John McCain announced Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, I was accurately quoted as saying that she is "uniquely and supremely unqualified" to seek the position for which she is running. And I have seen nothing to date that refutes that notion.

Keep reading

Program Note:
It's the showdown everyone's been waiting for.
Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join the best political team on television for your front row seat!

Debate Night in America: Vice Presidential Debate
Tonight, beginning 8p ET
 
 
 __________________________________________________________________________________

John P. Avlon
Author, Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics

Is Sarah Palin ready for Prime-Time?

That's the question Americans will be looking to answer tonight at the first and only Vice-Presidential debate in St. Louis.

Rarely are VP debates consequential – the first rule is "do no harm" to the top of the ticket.

But the combination of one of the least nationally-known picks in history, paired with the oldest nominee in history, has Americans paying uncommon attention to the person who could be one chicken-bone away from the presidency.

Keep reading

Program Note:
It's the showdown everyone's been waiting for.
Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join the best political team on television for your front row seat!

Debate Night in America: Vice Presidential Debate
Tonight, beginning 8p ET

 
__________________________________________________________________________________

Rachel Campos-Duffy
Republican activist
'Red Mom/Blue Mom'

I’ll never quite understand why the McCain campaign thought it was a good idea to send Sarah to Charlie and Katie before Regis and Kelly.

Frankly, Palin’s handlers” should be sued for incompetence. The View was begging to have her and if I was running the McCain campaign, I would not only have agreed to book her, I would have offered her as a guest co-host!

Shows like The View play to her natural strength; connecting to regular people in the language of regular people. On The View, I believe a scrappier, less defensive Sarah would have emerged, and perhaps have set the tone for her, and her critics.

Keep reading

Program Note:
It's the showdown everyone's been waiting for.
Sarah Palin and Joe Biden face off on the issues.
Join the best political team on television for your front row seat!

Debate Night in America: Vice Presidential Debate
Tonight, beginning 8p ET

  __________________________________________________________________________________
Jack Gray
AC360° Associate Producer

It’s the political Thrilla in Manila – just substitute St. Louis for Manila and Claire McCaskill for Imelda Marcos. In one corner, Joe “What do you mean, hair plugs?” Biden. In the other corner, Sarah “I’ve never met a moose I didn’t kill” Palin.

Democrats are confident that all Biden has to do tonight is show-up, shut-up and make sure Elisabeth Hasselbeck doesn’t try to ambush him on stage.

Republicans maintain Palin is being sorely underestimated and that, as long as she doesn’t characterize having vodka martinis with Boris Yeltsin at the Bering Strait Yacht Club as foreign policy experience, she could pull off an upset.

Keep reading