Vice Presidential Debate Expectations: Obama Camp Calls Palin "Terrific Debater"

**Read all about the Vice Presidential debate.

On a Saturday conference call with reporters, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe called Gov. Sarah Palin "a terrific debater" who has "performed very, very well" in previous debates with opponents in her state.

Politico's Mike Allen writes:

"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." [...]

"She's obviously prepping this weekend in Pennsylvania," Plouffe continued. "Anyone who watches any of her previous debates would be impressed by her debating skills."

Obama national press secretary Bill Burton added: "What's missing is knowing where she stands on a lot of the important issues that will come up at the debate. Preparing to debate against someone who is really largely unknown, who's spent so much time preparing for the debate, will be a real challenge.

"She's not out there on the stump that much. She's not doing a whole lot of interviews. So she's spending a whole lot of time -- hours and hours a day, apparently -- preparing for this debate. And we suspect that she'll come in fighting form."

As Allen notes, campaigns regularly play such expectations games in the days leading up to a debate (in this case, Thursday's vice presidential debate).

But despite Palin's multiple cringe-inducing interview moments over the last few weeks, this sentiment from Obama aides is not just theater for the media's consumption. Privately, Democratic campaign officials have sent video clips of Palin's previous debates to the Huffington Post, noting her strong performances against more experienced Alaskan pols.

There is a legitimate sense of unease that the bar has been set so low for Palin that even a modest performance will be seen as a major success -- and that Palin may be capable of much more.

UPDATE: Some footage of Palin at a 2006 debate discussing her opposition to abortion rights:

Comments

[kennedyosker]

It doesn't matter who McCain's VP is. Liberals will bash him/her. This election is boring me.

I'd be open to Obama if he was more moderate. I also wish he was a bit more patriotic. I'm sure he loves his country more than we think but it wouldn't hurt to shout it from a mountain. We shouldn't have to remind him how important that is. This country has given us lots to be thankful for.

Politicians are so creepy anyway. Americans always turn on their president eventually.

[Kaleban]

It doesn't matter who Obama's VP is. Conservatives will bash him/her. This election is boring me.

I was going to switch up the rest of your comment to point out the simple fact that you're playing into partisan politics with all your conservative talking points, but that would be silly and too much work for a lazy good for nothing liberal like myself, right?

Americans turn on their presidents because for the last, oh I dunno, four decades or so has seen maybe two good presidents who actually LEAD the country even a little bit. The rest were basically clones whose sole purpose was to pad their own and their friends' bank accounts. And as anyone who knows anything about cloning will tell you, the further you go generation wise from the source, the more genetic defects each will have.

And because of that, you get people like Bush.

Obama on the other hand fits the first category, one of the few who actually inspire people with good arguments, sound judgement and actual hope. I would prefer a president who isn't so in love with his country vis a vis patriotism that he can't see the myriad problems. Shouting "USA, USA!" does not avert financial meltdown. Or fix the Middle East. What is needed is a person with a calm demeanor, who is adamant about prioritizing diplomacy, using force only as a very last resort, and does not give in to the catcalls from the opposing political party.

[KeithMayass]

the result of the debate lies in Biden's ability to control himself. if he sticks to giving answers based on his experience , everything will be fine.

he needs to avoid the distraction of generic answers given by Palin and only give the facts that hurt: economy ,bush, economy, bush..... did i mention economy ???

that was the mistake of Obama who went out of the core facts to spend a lot of time answering on earmarks and other subjects.

[WasteNJ]

Yes, raise the expectations, it's farther to fall. Debating some yokels around a table in Alaska ain't the same as debating Joe Biden. It just comes down to who knows the issues and who doesn't. The rest is fluff.
The MILFerick is going down.

[poleezz]

I don't see what all the hoopla is about. After watching the clip we can see that she is capable of speaking in a somewhat coherent manner. To call her a great debater is a real stretch. As far as I'm concerned her rivals were more eloquent in their responses. Is she given slack here because the bar is set so low or is it because she is a female. I am female BTW and I think she was fairly lame.

[turtleroot]

President Obama Art

I’m an Artist trying to support the Obama campaign.
I created a painting of President Obama, please check it out at.

http://www.cafepress.com/turtleroot

Prints are available for sale.

Thanks,
Andre Harris

[apatheticmoth]

i think it's going to be outrageously difficult for biden. he speaks in nothing but gaffes. yes, he is experienced and knowledgeable about the issues at hand, but his passion for the fight gets in the way of his logic and since palin has absolutely no idea what she's talking about, it's easy for her to just cheerlead her way through the debate. she might as well, be wearing a nascar tee-shirt, holding a six-pack (budweiser), and singing country-western music tomorrow night because that is the tone she's going to set. "i might not have all the answers, but i'm just like a small percentage of backwards, ill-informed white americans"

how do you think w. got away with it for 2 terms? people en masse are STUPID!!!!!

[anleyang]

Palin needs lipstick...

http://myrealitytelevision.com/2008/09/who-caused-financial-meltdown-was-mccain-negligent-2008-presidential-debate/

[chromodynamics]

If that tape tells us anything, then it tells us that Sarah Palin is anti-abortion. It is hardly something we did not already know, but she kept repeating it for every question they gave her on the subject.

It was like as if someone kept asking her different questions about how she would handle the mortgage crisis and she kept repeating that she was all for home ownership. While that might be a nice sound bite, it adds nothing to the debate, and people want to hear more than just stock boilerplate assertions.

Great debater? I think not.

[GingerB]

I really don't think anyone is pro-abortion. Wouldn't everyone want to see the numbers of abortions go lower? Republican hypocrites are unwilling to face the fact that abortions increase under their leadership (rule) due to their punitive policies against women and the poor. We've see how well their abstinence only policy worked in Palin's own family.

I'm strongly and firmly pro-choice. It's not for legislators to control a woman's uterus and reproductive life IMO. We aren't incubators for politicians.

Palin saying she is pro-life is nothing but a lie. She's made it clear she's not against taking lives (human and animal). She is anti-choice.


I agree with you that she's not a great debater. I look forward to Biden mopping the floor with her.

[lungfish]

yea, she is a terrific debater. In fact, she is a masterdebater....

[rigormrtis]

That's what I'll be doing when I watch it.

[kennedyosker]

Oooh, you must really like her then.

[missedith]

Sadly, the bar is set so low -- either she's the smartest woman on the planet and has been hiding it or she is as out of her league as she appears - that it'll be called a "win" if she doesn't fall down or say anything about Putin's head rearing up over Alaska.

[newmedia1]

Oh please come now hurricane. Mountain, fall on us all this Thrusday. Locust, eat the vegatation up.
Come on natural disaster, reck havoc before Thrusday. Beware the edes of March.

[newmedia1]

In the video Palin asked the reporter the difference between an amendment and legislation; a real treat.

[fedupwithrepublicans]

When she starts trying to answer questions with the information that will be fed to her during "camp" she will sound like a programmed candidate, or become so confused that she will be unable to put together a sentence. That was obvious in her trying to answer questions from Katie Couric. The handlers translated what she was supposed to be saying and it was obvious that she couldn't remember the order of the words as they were fed to her.

[smokeystover39]

A Master-debater Sarah is ---Yup, Yup.

[luvangelHussein330]

Palins is very good in that video...I don't know if Joe is going to be able to handle her come thursday...I'm concerned...she is just that good.




**mission complete**

[Hawaii4Obama]

Just read http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/28/palin-in-debate-camp-until-thursday/....she's...she's on her way to "debate camp" in McCain's home in Arizona along with her "First Dude" and family in tow. Have fun, Sarah! See ya, Thursday...Joe Biden will be waitin' fer ya!