Candidates spar over issues
By BETH FOUHY
Associated Press
Friday, October 3, 2008 11:01 AM PDT
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| Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin passes in front of Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., after the vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., Thursday. |
ST. LOUIS — Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden sparred over taxes, energy policy and the Iraq war in a high-profile debate in which Palin sought to reclaim her identity as a feisty reformer and Biden tried to undercut the maverick image of GOP presidential hopeful John McCain. Palin, in the 90-minute forum broadcast Thursday night from Washington University in St. Louis, was under intense pressure to show basic competence on issues facing the next president after a series of embarrassing television interviews called into question her readiness for high office. For the most part she appeared confident and folksy while casting Biden and Democratic standard bearer Barack Obama as tax-raisers who would risk defeat in Iraq and the broader war on terror.
She also tried to portray the Democrats as obsessed with the failures of President Bush even as she acknowledged his Republican administration was responsible for ‘‘huge blunders’’ in the war and elsewhere.
‘‘For a ticket that wants to talk about change and looking into the future, there’s just too much finger-pointing backwards to ever make us believe that that’s where you’re going,’’ Palin said, saying she and McCain were the real change agents in the race.
But Palin also sidestepped certain questions, pivoting at times to talking points and generalities.
Asked by moderator Gwen Ifill if she would support legislation allowing debt-strapped mortgage holders to file for bankruptcy to get out from under that debt, Palin said yes but avoided details, quickly steering the focus back to a more general discussion of the ‘‘toxic mess’’ in the financial industry. And asked how she as vice president would help reduce partisanship in Washington, she said, ‘‘Let’s commit ourselves just every day American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again.’’
