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Up for DebateEmily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick take readers' questions about tonight's vice-presidential face-off.

Posted Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008, at 4:46 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

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No one from the XX factor seemed to have any love for Hillary when she was running, but it would be a fantastic thing to see her debate Palin tonight—we have no lack of competent women on the national political stage. I'm hoping this experience with Palin makes people appreciate the qualified women we do have. It was a cheap gambit to put her on the ticket, and let's all hope it fails. She will do women aspiring to that higher office no favors by being an incompetent first.

Dahlia Lithwick: Anonymous, I half-corrected myself on that front in today's XX factor posting where I finally came round to observing, as you do, that Palin's problems transcend her gender and that women are starting to understand that part of gender freedom is the freedom to suck spectacularly on the national stage. I agree it would be tremendous to see a Hillary-Sarah debate but don't discount that some of Palin's toughest critics have been women too, from Couric's sharp interview to Campbell Brown's Free Sarah Palin to Kathleen Parker at NRO, the smart competent women you are looking for have been on the front lines of diffusing the charge that attacks on Palin are all sexist.

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Salt Lake City: I'm worried Palin is going to be cracking jokes and one-liners throughout the debate to distract people from the lack of substance in her statements. Should Biden laugh at her jokes? Should he try to be funny too (a scary thought, considering how often his foot is in his mouth)? Or should he try to be more serious and draw attention away from Palin's attempts to win our hearts?

Emily Bazelon: Dahlia is the author of the genius piece giving advice to Biden for the debates (here's the link). I'll add my two cents: Biden should laugh at her jokes and generally try to come across as likeable and cheery. Palin does cheery well; he should try to, too. But I share your fear that if he tries to be funny he'll step in it. I think his main task is to be substantive and serious without being condescending. It will be enough if he staves off disaster by avoiding a big misstep. He's not the main show tonight. Palin is.

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Potomac, Md.: Do you really think poll numbers will be changed materially by this debate, given that so many voters have formed opinions about Palin from the abysmal performance in the last month, and that Biden is such a known quantity already after both a long congressional tenure and presidential campaigns. Aren't we really just looking for good entertainment tonight, causing no real change the campaigns' standing?

Dahlia Lithwick: I agree that the poll numbers will go where they will go regardless of tonight's debate, although I imagine the hope is that while Biden is, as you say, a known quantity, Palin might burnish some of that sparkle she had in early September. Will it change the outcome in November? prolly not. But would a great performance from her allay the widespread sense that McCain's judgment is just horrible? I think so.

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Washington: Just a comment: I think Palin is going to do just fine tonight. My prediction is that she will hammer at Obama (and apparently Biden) with pithy statements and well-delivered one-liners. Seems to me she is a savvy politician, and can get a little mean and dirty with a smile on her face, which makes it come across as not so mean—just folksy and blunt. Full disclosure—I don't like Palin, and Obama's got my vote. That said, I think Palin is likely to step up to the plate tonight. Unless, of course, Gwen Ifill asks those pesky, specific follow-up questions.

Emily Bazelon: Good points and smart prediction. Agreed that the follow-up question is what Palin most has to fear. I can see her performing the way you predict in terms of pithiness and one-liners. That's what I would have predicted after watching her initial launch and her speech at the convention. She seemed smart, dogged, poised, confident. She needs to be that Sarah Palin tonight, rather than the defensive, straining, tense candidate we've been seeing in these TV interviews. Can she pull that off on the open terrain of a debate?

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Arlington, Va.: In regards to Couric being hostile to Palin, what I found most telling was when Couric sat down with both McCain and Palin, and McCain chastized Couric. It really had the feeling of a parent-teacher conference about a less-than-stellar student. Palin sat there, silent, letting "dad" do the talking. It spoke volumes to me, and not in Palin's favor.

Emily Bazelon: Yes I don't think that moment did either McCain or Palin any favors. I don't really understand why they sat for that interview. The best way for them to rehabilitate Palin's image is to stick to the sympathetic airwaves of conservative talk radio and TV. There, the audience is with them, and the scorn of the MSM is a plus. The drawback, of course, is that they need the center as well as the Republican base to win, and the center isn't Rush Limbaugh's big draw.

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Washington: Emily, in your article "The Un-Hillary" you talk about the possibility of a new glass ceiling to replace the one with the 18 million Hillary cracks. ... What do you think, specifically, that new glass ceiling will look like? Is Sarah Palin's entirely flawed and insulting candidacy the last chance women will get to achieve executive office in the U.S.? Also, does Pelosi have an effect on this new glass ceiling? Given that she has been so ineffective and was blamed (wrongly in my opinion, but blamed nonetheless) for the failure of the bailout package, do you think they will give the speaker role to another woman anytime soon?

Emily Bazelon: That's such a good set of questions. You know, this is the problem with having so few examples to choose from. Each one—Clinton, Pelosi, Palin—looms so large in our consciousness. It's not fair to any of them, really. Sigh. It's more than I can bear, however, to think that we've seen our last woman presidential candidate or speaker of the House for a while. That's such a stark conclusion to draw from the criticism of either Palin or Pelosi, or all of it combined. Two reasons to hope otherwise: However these women may falter—and I agree with you that the attacks on Pelosi have been overblown—they are still making the presence of women on the national stage into more of a norm. And also, there must be younger women and girls out there with a talent for politics who are watching them and thinking: I could do that. I know I could.

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Pittsburgh: Is there any way to criticize Palin's performances in her interviews (and, depending on what happens, in the debate) without falling into the trap about the media "picking on" Palin or somehow presenting "gotcha" questions? I'm a Republican, but I am so frustrated by my party right now (a very long story) and the way they are handing this election. To claim "gotcha journalism" for a question from a regular citizen makes no sense to me, but I don't see any way of refuting these arguments with logic given that every refutation is turned into another attack.

Dahlia Lithwick: Pittsburgh. You have just voiced my own frustration with this current campaign. This seize-the-victim race or what our wonderful John Dickerson characterizes as the fight for the greatest "umbrage" at every turn has so completely diminished the tone of the race. Everyone in the media is forced to pick their way thru the minefield of unacceptable words or ideas ("don't. say. lipstick.") and is left feeling silenced and angry. The public feels that the debate has been sullied by claims and counterclaims of victimhood and they are left feeling angry. And even the candidates are so sold on the Umbrage Express that they begin to claim—as has Palin—both that they will not talk to the media AND that the media is silencing them. Can you imagine if we ordered pizza in this sad, roundabout, coded fashion??? Is this any way to talk to one another about critical questions of governance? The good news is I think a lot of folks share your frustration at this narrow political conversation. Maybe we have hit maximum acceptable umbrage, and can retreat to sanity?

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Washington: I'm no Biden fan, but I know there is a debate about the debate, on how he should act tonight. I personally think he should give short and clean answers. Talk about the good of the nation. Take zero shots at Palin, but focus on McCain. If she wants to get nasty while he's nice, that's fine. Let her talk as much as possible—she is uncomfortable with quiet spaces.

Emily Bazelon: Focusing on McCain could make Biden seem like the grown-up taking on the other grown up. On the other hand, if he ignores Palin entirely, that itself could seem dismissive or insulting. Plus he is after all running for the same office she is. So I think it's a tricky line to walk. Short and clean—hard to argue with that.

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I think it's all over: McCain abandons efforts to win Michigan (AP, Oct. 2).