Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said she expects a challenging debate next month when she faces a Democratic opponent who was elected to the Senate when she was 8 years old. "Sen. (Joe) Biden has tremendous amount of experience," Palin said in an interview scheduled to air Thursday on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "I think he was first elected when I was like in second grade. He's been in there a long, long, long time."
Too long.
Lowering expectations is typically part of the political gamesmanship before a debate. Biden has said he has debated "an awful lot of tough, smart women" and Palin will be no exception.
"She's a smart, tough politician, so I think she's going to be very formidable," he told NBC's "Meet the Press" earlier this month.
Biden, 65, was elected Delaware senator in 1972 at age 29. He turned 30 before taking office. He serves as chairman of Foreign Relations Committee and is a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
"So he's got the experience," Palin noted. "He probably has the sound bites. He has the rhetoric. He knows what's expected of him. He is a great debater, also. So yes, it's going to be quite a task in front of me."
"Oh, and did I mention he's a lefty?"
Palin, 44, was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 6,500, before becoming Alaska's governor in December 2006.
The vice presidential contenders are to meet Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis.
So when are the presidential contenders going to meet?