Friday is probably the most important day of the campaign.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

The strength of the Republican ticket is Palin, not McCain.

Before she was picked, it had been amply demonstrated that people preferred Obama to McCain; the bounce McCain got suggests that Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin isn't nearly so clear-cut.

Joe Biden has the hardest job in politics at present - he's got to stop Palin making herself look good, without making himself look bad, and she's likely to be a far, far better debating oponent than many DUers give her credit for.

The good news is that - as the past few days have demonstrated - when the issues intervene, and people are paying less attention to personalities, the Democrats once again start to gain.

So I think that all Biden really has to do is to stop this election becoming a referendum on Sarah Palin (which is what the Republicans are likely to try to make it).

I hope he can do it.

[tekisui]

1. palin making herself look good?

Huh?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Whether Palin is a charismatic and appealing candidate is subjective.

That a high proportion of the American electorate think she is is objectively true.

[Winterblues]

2. Sarah has a folksy way about her and people seem to like her

She may just be able to talk her way around all the issues and make Biden seem mean if he questions her to much. I suspect it won't quite be the slam dunk so many here believe. Biden has made a few slip ups this campaign and needs to not be over confident..

[ThomWV]

5. She might be able to get away with that folksy bullshit for 15 minutes, but this is for 90

If Ifill is even half as good as Curic was at just trying to get a straight answer then its all over for Palin.

[ProgressiveFool]

3. He needs to concentrate on Bush=McCain

And let her try to defend that. She doesn't understand the disastrous Bush admin policies that got us here in the first place anyway and that will frustrate her, let her natural incoherence and tendency to mouth meaningless political platitudes take over.