US VP debate centers on economy, diplomacy, Americans growingly skeptical of Palin

Poll: Americans growingly skeptical of Palin

www.chinaview.cn 2008-10-03 05:49:46  

·Palin is prepared to debate Democratic counterpart Joe Biden Thursday night. ·Palin is now a much less positive force, according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll. ·Six in 10 voters now see her as lacking the experience to be an effective president.

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) --

Americans are growingly skeptical of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's readiness as she is prepared to debate Democratic counterpart Joe Biden Thursday night.

    Though she initially transformed the race with her energizing presence and a fiery convention speech last month, Palin is now a much less positive force, according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll. 

    Six in 10 voters now see her as lacking the experience to be an effective president, and a third are now less likely to vote for Republican presidential nominee John McCain because of her.

    A month ago, voters rated Palin as highly as they did McCain or his Democratic rival Barack Obama, but after weeks of intensive coverage and several perceived missteps, the shine has diminished.

    Meanwhile, nearly a third of adults in a new poll from the Pew Research Center said they paid a lot of attention to Palin's interviews with CBS News's Katie Couric, a series that prompted grumbling among some conservative commentators about Palin's competency to be the GOP's vice presidential standard-bearer.

    In the Washington Post-ABC poll, Palin matches the Democratic vice presidential candidate Biden on empathy, one of McCain's clear deficits against Obama, while fewer than half of voters think she understands "complex issues."

    But it is the experience question that may prove her highest hurdle, as about half of all voters said they were uncomfortable with the idea of McCain taking office at age 72, and 85 percent of those voters said Palin does not have the requisite experience to be president. 

    The 60 percent who now see Palin as insufficiently experienced to step into the presidency is steeply higher than in a Post-ABC poll after her nomination early last month.

    The Washington Post-ABC poll was conducted by telephone Sept. 27-29 among a random sample of adults nationally, including interviews with 1,070 registered voters.

U.S. VP debate centers on economy, diplomacy

www.chinaview.cn 2008-10-03 09:09:37   Biden and Palin clashed on economy as they debated at Washington University. ·Palin blamed some of the U.S. financial crisis on Wall Street. ·Biden blamed some of the crisis on deregulation policies that McCain believes in.

      WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) --

U.S. vice presidential (VP) candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin centered their debate on economy and diplomacy Thursday night at Washington University in St. Louis, Miss..

    There's a lot of anticipation surrounding the debate, and the stakes are high for both candidates.

    Biden and Palin started their debate with a discussion of the economy.

    Palin, a female Republican governor from Alaska, blamed some of the U.S. financial crisis on Wall Street.

    "You're darn right it was the predator lenders," she said. "There was greed and corruption on Wall Street."

    Biden blamed some of the crisis on deregulation policies that Republican presidential nominee John McCain believes in.

    "McCain voted for deregulation and that is why we are in the crisis that we are in," he said.

    Biden said the economic bailout bill is evidence that the United States has had the "worst economic policy we ever had."

    Palin said a barometer for how Americans are feeling about the economy can be felt at kids' soccer games.

    She said Americans are "scared."

    Palin said Democratic presidential nominee Obama's economic plans are "the backwards way of trying to grow our economy" because she believes he would raise taxes too high on too many people.

    She noted that Biden said recently it would be "patriotic" of the wealthy to pay higher taxes.

    "That's not patriotic," she says. In her view, millions of Americans believe government is "the problem" and doesn't need more in taxes.

    She added that "millions of small businesses" would pay higher taxes because Obama would raise them on those who earn more than 250,000 U.S. dollars a year while Biden said the fact is that 95 percent of small businesses earn less than that amount.

    The two candidates also disagreed about the causes of climate change.

    Palin said she isn't one to "attribute every activity of man to the changes in the climate."

    "There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet," she said.

    Biden disagreed, saying, "I think it is manmade. It's clearly manmade."

    "If you don't understand what the cause is, you cannot come up with a solution," he added..

    Palin praised the surge in Iraq and said Obama voted against funding the troops in Iraq.

    "The surge and counter insurgency has worked," she said. "It would be a shame if we quit on Iraq."

    Palin even said that setting a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq, a position Obama supported, was tantamount to "a white flag of surrender in Iraq."

    Biden said he and Obama will be the administration that will end the war.

    "We will end the war. With John McCain there is no end to the war," he said. Thursday's debate is the only VP debate for this general election.

    Palin accused Barack Obama of voting against funding for U.S. troops in combat and chastised Biden, for defending the move, "especially with your son in the National Guard" and headed for Iraq.

    "John McCain voted against funding for the troops," as well, Biden countered, adding that the Republican presidential candidate had been "dead wrong on the fundamental issues relating to the conduct of the war."

    He did not immediately reply to Palin's mention of his son, Beau, the Delaware attorney general, who is scheduled to fly to Iraq with his National Guard unit on Friday.

    For much of the evening, the debate unfolded in traditional vice presidential fashion-- the running mates praising their own presidential candidate and denigrating the other.

    Palin, who has been governor of her state less than two years, was under intense pressure to demonstrate a strong grasp of the issues as she stepped onto the stage.

    Pre-debate polls show the public has become increasingly skeptical of her readiness for high public office.

    It is still too early to tell if her performance in the debate improved her image.