Bending the Rules

This year's vice presidential debate will embrace a "historic" new format. Both Palin and Biden will have a mere ninety seconds to respond as opposed to the more recent format that allowed for two minute responses. Despite the fact that this time restriction is not as harsh as the seventy-five second time limit of the 1992 VP debate, it still works out to the favor of the McCain campaign.

"McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose
format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a
disadvantage and largely on the defensive" (Healy).

That just goes to show the ridiculous political move made by the McCain campaign. If they were worried about how Palin would fare in a debate then perhaps they should have picked a more qualified running mate. In fact, this seems to be the most blantant attempt by the McCain campaign to pull the wool over the eyes of Americans regarding Palin. What is evenmore mystifying than McCain's made efforts to cover for Palin's lack of experience by changing the debate format, is how Obama and his campaign agreed to allow the changes. Obama and Biden clearly had the Republicans, in their own words, "on the defensive", so why back down now? I personally think that Andrew Sullivan, a writer for theAtlantic.com put it best when he said:

"We are now rigging the debate formats to compensate for a know-nothing, mendacious Manchurian candidate drilled in meaningless talking points? And the Obama team agreed to this? And so did the press?" (Sullivan)

Since the Obama camp may have let Palin avert potential disaster, they will now have to wait to see if McCain's rule bending backfires.

Ideally, people will see right through this cheap political move, which will possibly be a turn-off to swing voters or anyone who is unclear as to whether Palin is a legitimate VP pick or not. That is one potential point that could lead to a backfire in the McCain campaign's plan. The other potential falling point of McCain's move would be that the shorter time for responses leaves voters with the same feeling of uncertainty regarding Palin as before. Since she will have less time to respond, it will be difficult for voters to get a feel for Palin's politics, which would not benefit the Republicans. Whether McCain's plan works or not, it is completely a completely ridiculous move and I am astounded that Obama, the media and everyone else is just letting this happen right before our eyes.

Sources:

Sullivan, Adrew, The Atlantic.com, http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/, October 1, 2008

Healy, Patrick, New York Times, Pact on Debates Will Let McCain and Obama Spar, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/us/politics/21debate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1, September 20, 2008

Commision on Presidential Debates, http://www.debates.org/pages/his_2008.html