Sarah Palin said today she’s eager to debate Joe Biden, and revved up supporters with a zinger about the difference in their ages.
“It’s my turn now. I’m looking forward to Thursday night’s debate,” Palin told supporters in Ohio.
“I’ve never met Joe Biden. But I’ve been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, second grade,” Palin quipped to thunderous applause at the Columbus event, where she introduced GOP presidential running mate John McCain, who’s seven years older than Biden.
Democrat Biden, 65, has been Delaware’s senator for 35 years. Palin, 44, is a first-term Republican governor from Alaska.
The vice-presidential rivals will debate at Washington University in St. Louis.
Palin sought to lower expectations by praising Biden as a “good debater.”
But she also tried to score some parochial points with Ohio football fans at Biden’s expense.
“This is the same Senator Biden who said the University of Delaware would trounce the Ohio Buckeyes,” she said, eliciting boos for Biden.
Palin will spend today and tomorrow prepping for the debate with top McCain campaign aides in Sedona, Ariz.
For his part, Biden said he wasn’t worried about coming on too strong in the face-off with Palin and giving the appearance that he’s bullying a woman.
“I’m so accustomed to debating really competent women, senators and governors,” Biden told the CBS “Early Show.” “Try debating, as [Barack Obama and I] both did, Hillary Clinton.”
Biden was in 12 debates with Clinton and Obama before dropping out of the Democratic contest.
Palin was underestimated as a lightweight during her run for governor in 2006. But she defeated the GOP incumbent in a primary and won the general election after holding her own in two dozen debates.
And she wasn’t a pushover for questioners.
Palin, during a gubernatorial debate in 2006, was asked what she would do if her daughter were to become pregnant, something that she’s really had to address this year.
“I would choose life, and certainly I’m quite confident that you’re going to be asking my opponents those same scenarios,” Palin said.
Biden is known as a quick-witted, skillful debater. But he’s also been criticized as long-winded.
In one of his memorable debate lines this year, he belittled Rudy Giuliani’s presidential candidacy as amounting to little more than “a noun, a verb and 9/11.”