Sarah Palin may have helped herself in debate, but not McCain
Her steady peformance in the VP nominee showdown with Joe Biden seems unlikely to turn the momentum of a campaign that lately has been in Obama's favor.
WASHINGTON — Sarah Palin entered the vice presidential debate in St. Louis tonight facing an electorate increasingly dubious about her readiness for the second-highest office in the nation.
With a relatively steady performance, the Alaska governor may have helped arrest voters' declining confidence in her candidacy since John McCain first put her on the Republican ticket five weeks ago.
Palin's much-anticipated showdown against Democrat Joe Biden seems unlikely to significantly shake up a campaign whose momentum increasingly has appeared to be with Barack Obama.
Debates typically reinforce voters' existing perceptions, rather than dramatically alter them. And Biden, whose history of making gaffes is Washington legend, stuck largely to safe ground.
The six-term Delaware senator avoided direct attacks on Palin, focusing his criticism instead on McCain, a tried-and-true tactic for the No. 2 member of a ticket.
Palin, too, slipped into a traditional vice presidential role, touting McCain's work in Congress and criticizing Obama and Biden for their tax proposals and Iraq policy.
She also brought her distinctly folksy style to the debate hall tonight, winking occasionally and peppering her speech with "you betcha" and "darn right."
Early in the debate, Palin invoked a suburban scene to discuss the state of the economy.
"I think a good barometer here, as we try to figure out, 'Has this been a good time or a bad time in America's economy?' is go to a kids' soccer game on Saturday and turn to any parent there on the sideline and ask them, 'How are you feeling about the economy?' " Palin said. "And I'll betcha you're going to hear some fear in that parent's voice."
Palin's personal stories have been the core of her campaign stump speech, where she talks often about her family and her state, underscoring her qualifications as a Washington outsider.
But the first-term governor's popularity has ebbed more recently as she struggled in a number of television interviews to convey an understanding of foreign policy, the Supreme Court, even the legislative record of her running mate.
Just 37% of respondents in a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press said they believed she was ready to be president, compared to more than half immediately after the convention.
