The Politico reported a couple days ago that the strategy is to go easy on Palin so as to avoid sounding condescending:
“If she makes a gaffe, he underplays it,” one of the people prepping Biden for his vice presidential debate told me. “At most, he says, ‘I am not sure what Gov. Palin meant there.’”
There are three reasons for this. First, Biden does not want to look condescending. For the same reason, he plans on referring to Palin as “Gov. Palin” during the debate and never as “Sarah.” (He will sometimes refer to John McCain as “John,” however, because they have been senators together for many years.)
Biden will allow the media to slam Palin for her mistakes and concentrate on going after the top of the ticket.
If an absolutely cloyingly positive 1987 profile of Biden in the Chicago Tribune is to be believed ($), there's a precedent for this strategy in high-stakes Biden debates. He claims he went easy on Sen. Caleb Boggs in his surprising bid to unseat the incumbent Republican in 1972:
Flashback: County council member Joe Biden, husband, father, senatorial candidate, stares across the stage at his debate opponent, incumbent Sen. J. Caleb Boggs. A reporter asks Boggs to explain his position on the genocide treaty. The older man pauses, fumbling, then admits he is unfamiliar with the treaty. Boggs tosses the question to the challenger. Biden hesitates, thinking about the treaty, a document that defines any act to destroy an entire ethnic group as an international crime. Why not go for the jugular?
His response, 'I'm sorry, I don't know what that is, either.'
Quote, years later, on why: "It would have been graceless."
Of course, given Biden's penchant for exaggeration, I wouldn't be surprised if he had no idea what the treaty was about, and somewhat improved the story in the retelling, turning gaffe into grace.
Palin, meanwhile, is set to be "aggressive:"
GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin plans to launch aggressive attacks against her Democratic opponent Joe Biden tomorrow night, her campaign aides said, in order to remind voters of why she became popular in her home state of Alaska.
"Governor Palin is eager for the opportunity to contrast her record of reform to the hollow rhetoric of a politician who has spent the bulk of his adult life inside the confines of Washington, D.C.," said Palin spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. "Tomorrow night will address a critical question; which is more relevant to the office of the vice-presidency -- real-life results or Washington double-speak?"
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Weblog...PView.asp#8688
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