Health of the Candidates

We've previously discussed the idea as to what from the candidate's private life should become public knowledge. It seemed that the consensus was that the medical history of the involved parties should be made public, so that the voters of the country have an idea as to what they're going to be dealing with over the course of the next 4 years. In tomorrow's NY Times, a new article investigating the candidate's health will be featured. You can read the article on the Times website now. The article is an in-depth look into the medical histories of each candidate with the exception of Palin, who has volunteered nothing in terms of information, which keeps with the intense protection the McCain camp has attempted to utilize for Palin. Regardless, its an interesting (and intensive) read worth the time it takes to click through 5 pages.

This Just In...

VP Debate could be Politically Pivotal.

While it may seem like an obvious statement, with all the the scrutiny on Palin prior to tonight's debate, this could be a contest with far reaching consequences for both sides. With more than half of voters beginning to think that Palin doesn't understand the "complex issues", tonight may be her last chance to salvage whatever dignity she may have left. After getting drummed with questions to which she had no answer by Katie Couric (Katie Couric!) and stumbling through moments of the Charlie Gibson interview, it's almost a necessity for Palin to come out tonight and have a great debate.

On the other hand, I feel its almost a necessity for Biden to come out and bury Palin. Let's all be honest, the McCain/Palin ticket has had a rough couple of weeks and while I'm not quite ready to say that they're reeling, its not a stretch to say that they've been falling behind. If Biden can unequivocally show tonight that Palin is the clueless, unprepared woman she has made herself to be in the past few weeks, I'm not quite sure how she'll be able to recover. As we discussed briefly in Monday's class, if Palin has another bad week and then all of a sudden turns it around and comes out slinging knowledge, can we even believe that its genuine and not a regurgitation of today's fact packet? I'm not so sure that I want a VP who needs to use flash cards during a meeting with a foreign head of state. But hey, that may just be me.

Searching for Bobby Fisher (/Joe Biden)

For all of those looking for the other VP nominee, it appears that he may be back in business. As we mentioned briefly in class, there was some increasing talk about Joe Biden's general lack of exposure in wake of Sarah Palin's Super Woman rise and escapades. The LA Times has an interesting article discussing the amazing vanishing act of one Joe Biden and in it, suggests that Biden may not have gone anywhere, but it was merely the media who fled. What'll happen as Palin's novelty wears and the general grating nature of her ignoring the press becomes more, well, grating? As I mentioned in my previous post, the press staged a mini coup earlier today at the UN. Will Biden begin to re-enter the picture as McCain/Palin continue to piss off the press?