VP debate now a hot ticket in St. Louis

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By Kavita Kumar, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Saturday, September 6, 2008 11:09 PM CDT | () comments

ST. LOUIS — It may have initially appeared that Washington University drew the short stick when it was awarded the vice presidential debate.

After all, the school is more accustomed to welcoming the names at the top of the ticket, having hosted presidential debates in all but one of the past four elections.

And then came the revelation that Washington University wasn’t even first choice for the second-fiddle debate. It turns out Washington State University had been offered the gig first but turned it down.

Those disappointments have been a distant memory since last week, when U.S. Sen. John McCain shook up the race by unexpectedly announcing he had asked Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska and self-described “hockey mom,” to be his running mate.

Instantly, the vice presidential showdown in St. Louis on Oct. 2, which will be moderated by PBS’ Gwen Ifill, became one of the most highly anticipated events of the campaign season. In fact, political experts are saying this could be the most closely watched vice presidential debate in history. And unlike most debates between running mates, experts say, this one actually has the potential to turn the election.

Reporters from as far as Alaska have been begging for press credentials, even though the deadline for such requests was last month. And the school, which had received virtually no requests for tickets until last Friday, has been fielding dozens of calls from people wanting a ringside seat to the big show.

Even elected officials are scrounging for tickets. State Sen. John Loudon, R-Chesterfield, said he put in a call last Friday to local Republican party officials to try to snag a seat. State Sen. Jeff Smith, D-St. Louis, said he’s also hoping to work some connections to get inside the venue.

Nearly all that new interest in the debate centers on Palin, not her more seasoned rival, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

“She is a total wild card,” said Joel Goldstein, a St. Louis University law professor. “People don’t know anything about her. I think they’re intrigued as to how she responds.”

He added that Palin has been closely managed by the campaign and has not spoken too much off the cuff yet.

“It’s one thing to give a speech when you’re reading a script,” he said. “It’s another thing to have to respond to questions and to have to do it under the bright lights.”

Rob Wild, the chairman of Washington University’s debate steering committee, said that the school will follow its long-standing tradition of giving its tickets to students. About 6,000 students have already signed up for the lottery to get tickets. In 2004, about 150 students were able to sit inside the auditorium for the presidential debate.

As for everybody else hoping to be inside, Wild said, “We encourage people to enjoy it on television.”

Janet Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, said she doesn’t know yet how many seats there will be because they are still figuring out staging and logistics. She said tickets will primarily go to the campaigns, the host (Washington University) and to the commission. She added that tickets available to the public would be unlikely and very limited in number if they materialize at all.

Brittany Perez, a senior and president of Washington University’s student government, said the debate has been all the buzz since students started coming back to campus a couple of weeks ago.

“I think initially people were like, ‘Oh, how come we didn’t get a presidential debate?’” she said.

But in some ways, this is more intriguing, she said, since people don’t know the vice presidential candidates very well.

Steve Smith, a Washington University political science professor who attended the Republican National Convention as a media commentator, said Palin showed Wednesday night in her speech that she can deliver scripted attack lines and that she has some substance.

“She needed to reclaim her image after a couple of days of being beaten up and she did that with self-confidence and humor,” he said.

The next test will be whether she can handle some give and take with reporters on the campaign trail and in the debate.

But Smith noted that Biden sometimes has a sharp tongue, and has the potential to make blunders.

“Biden has a tendency to talk too much,” Smith said. “To give a crisp 60-second or 90-second answer is a skill and he’s not always shown he’s good at it.”

The anticipation of those possible exchanges has political observers salivating. And some are working whatever connection they can to see the action in person.

Even former U.S. Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo., got a call this week from someone sweet talking him for tickets. It came from a complete stranger.

(The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a Lee Enterprises newspaper.)