Palin, Biden go head-to-head

3 Oct 2008, 10:44 am   -   Source: SBS, AAP, AFP, CNN
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Vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden went head to head in a televised debate. (Getty)

Vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden went head to head in a televised debate. (Getty)

Vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden have disagreed sharply on the roots and the remedies of the US financial crisis at their crucial running mates' debate.

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Vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden have disagreed sharply on the roots and the remedies of the US financial crisis at their crucial running mates' debate.

Vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joe Biden disagreed sharply on the roots and the remedies of the US financial crisis and an exit strategy for Iraq during the VP debate.

Republican Palin, 44, and Democrat Biden, 65, faced off in St. Louis, Missouri for a 90-minute showdown, seeking to land blows on behalf of presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama.

Financial crisis

Early exchanges narrowed in on the financial crisis, and its debilitating impact on the US middle classes.

Palin blamed Democrats for embracing wealth distribution and high tax policies that she said would limit growth. Biden argued that eight years of Republican policies were to blame for the economy's nightmare.

The Alaska governor framed herself as the kind of middle-class person that attends kids' soccer games, and again putting forward her "hockey mom" persona, said she had been a reformer as a small town mayor and governor and was an expert on energy.

"I may not answer the question the way you want to hear but I'll talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also," she said.

Biden avoided all but the most gentle attacks on Palin's answers, concentrating mostly on an attempt to demolish McCain's credibility on the economy.

"It was two Mondays ago that John McCain said at nine in the morning that fundamentals of the economy were strong.

"Later that day John McCain said we had an economic crisis -- that doesn't make John McCain a bad guy but it does point out he's out of touch," he said.

Palin chose not to parry a Biden argument that McCain had argued against greater regulation on Wall Street, and contributed to the debt-laden crisis threatening the US economy.


Instead, she argued that Obama had voted in the Senate to raise taxes 94 times, a claim that has been questioned by newspaper reports and independent fact check operations.

She also painted McCain as a "maverick" immune from the kind of Washington logjam politics she framed his long-time Senate colleague Biden as representing.

The war in Iraq

Palin accused Biden of waving a "white flag of surrender in Iraq" as they clashed over the war.

The two candidates for the VP post, who both have sons being deployed to Iraq, had some of their sharpest exchanges of their only debate in the 2008 White House race over the bloody conflict now in its sixth year.

"Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq and that is not what our troops need to hear today that's for sure," Palin rebuked Biden on the stage at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.

"It's not what our nation needs to be able to count on. You opposed the surge. The surge worked. Barack Obama still can't admit the surge works," she added, referring to the Democratic presidential hopeful.

"We'll know when we're finished in Iraq when the Iraqi government can govern its people and when the Iraqi security forces can secure its people," said Palin, whose oldest son Track deployed to Iraq last month.

"Our commanders on the ground will tell us when those conditions have been met. And we are getting closer and closer to that victory that's within sight."

But Biden said the Republicans were not offering a plan to end the conflict, triggered by the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, which has now cost the lives of some 4,000 US troops.

"I didn't hear a plan," Biden shot back. "Barack Obama offered a clear plan. Ship responsibility to Iraqis over the next 16 months. Draw down our combat troops."

Biden, whose son Beau is due to deploy to Iraq tomorrow, said: "This is a fundamental difference between us, we'll end this war. For John McCain there's no end in sight to end this war. Fundamental difference. We'll end this war."

And he added: "Barack Obama and I agree fully and completely on one thing. You've got to have a time line to draw down the troops and shift responsibility to the Iraqis.

"We're spending 10 billion dollars a month while Iraqis have an 80 billion dollars surplus," Biden said, arguing it was time for the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to shoulder its responsibilities.

Who will win the debate?

Before the debate concern mounted in the Republican camp about Palin's readiness since she stumbled in several interviews on foreign policy, the economy and the Supreme Court.

She has faced widespread ridicule for some of her answers, including citing Alaska's proximity to Canada and Russia as valid foreign policy experience.

Biden has 35 years experience in the Senate, and while he is known for often being too verbose, he has plenty of high-profile debates under his belt.

Palin wowed the Republican convention in early September with her speech, and the devout Christian, pro-life, moose-hunting mother-of-five reenergized the party's conservative base reluctant to embrace McCain.

But her star has been fading amid a string of controversies and her stumbling performances in the few media interviews she has granted.
 

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