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Finally, the crisis in financial capitalism was knocked into second place on the news agenda by Campaign '08. On the intermediate day--after the Senate approved the Treasury Department's $700bn bailout plan and before the House of Representatives is due to vote on it for a second time--the Presidential election campaign was Story of the Day. The occasion was the debate in St Louis between the Vice-Presidential candidates, scheduled for television's primetime. CBS sent anchor Katie Couric to Missouri to preview the showdown between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden; ABC and NBC kept their anchors in New York; but the lead story on all three newscasts was filed from the debate site at Washington University.

This is the seventh Presidential election in which a debate has been scheduled between the two running mates. NBC's Andrea Mitchell predicted that it would get "unprecedented attention." The reason is Palin. Mitchell portrayed the Governor of Alaska as undergoing a "sharp drop" in voters' perceptions as being qualified for high office--from her "electrifying debut" just a month ago to "seeing her falter in interviews." For those of you wanting direct links, the interviews by ABC anchor Charles Gibson were on foreign policy, God's plan for Iraq, the economy and the Mommy Wars; those by CBS anchor Katie Couric were on the financial crisis, foreign policy and personal politics; Couric's Vice-Presidential Questions have been on the Supreme Court, church and state, the Vice Presidency, Dick Cheney and on favorite movies.

A would-be Second Sister told ABC's Kate Snow that Palin's practice sessions for the debate had been like "the worst college exam prep session ever." For Republican candidate John McCain, Palin's performance "could render a critical verdict on his judgment" in selecting her, mused CBS' Dean Reynolds (no link). He quoted McCain's own defense of his running mate: "If there is a Georgetown cocktail party person who calls himself 'a conservative' and does not like her--good luck!" As for Democrat Biden, CBS' Chip Reid (no link) heard Barack Obama's campaign play the expectations game on his behalf by calling Palin "one of the best debaters in American politics." Reid restrained himself: "Now that may be an overstatement."


Andrew Tyndall 10/4/08 11:33:48 pm

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