... Make that 18 Million (and One) Cracks in the Glass Ceiling

Matt Lewis | August 29, 2008 10:53 AM

McCain's strategy of wooing Hillary voters makes even more sense now, doesn't it. (And you thought you couldn't be excited about a McCain candidacy ...)

It is important that Palin gets off to a good start today with a good speech. Aside from that, though, some think

Joe Biden will "eat her alive in the debates" but this is a simplistic analysis. First, historically, it may not matter who wins that debate. Second, Biden will have to be very careful how he handles the debate. I think that the wrong attack on Palin could backfire in a way that an attack on Hillary didn't backfire ...

Flashback to '84:

Ferraro held her own in the vice-presidential debate with George Bush on October 11, 1984, but most pundits agreed that Bush came out ahead, adequately performing the difficult task laid out by one of his advisers: "Your assignment is to win, but not have her lose." Bush could not appear too patronizing, nor could he seem too deferential. But his comment at a rally for longshoremen in Elizabeth, New Jersey the morning after the debate -- that he had "tried to kick a little ass" -- became, as political reporters Jack Germond and Jules Witcover called it, a "classic campaign tempest in a teapot." As did a comment by Barbara Bush characterizing Ferraro as "a four million dollar -- I can't say it but it rhymes with rich" because, in the opinion of the vice-president's wife, Ferraro was masquerading as a working-class wife and mother.