Biden unafraid to debate ‘tough’ Palin

DEMOCRAT Joe Biden said he’s debated “an awful lot of tough, smart women” throughout his career and that next month’s vice presidential debate with Republican Sarah Palin will be no exception. But he’d like to know where she stands on issues.

“She’s a smart, tough politician, so I think she’s going to be very formidable,” Biden told NBC’s Meet the Press yesterday.

The Democratic senator from Delaware and the Republican governor of Alaska are scheduled to debate on October 2 at Washington University in St Louis in the central state of Missouri.

Biden, serving his sixth term in Congress, said “there’s a lot of very tough, smart women in the United States Senate I debate every day”. So going up against the first-term governor, he said: “It is not new.” He also mentioned his wife, Jill, who has a PhD.

Asked whether he’d debate Palin differently than he would Republicans Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge, two former governors who figured in speculation about John McCain’s running mate, Biden said the only difference is that he knows their positions on issues.

“I have no idea what her policies are. I assume they’re the same as John’s. I just don’t know,” he said of Palin.

Biden said she delivered a great speech to the Republican National Convention last week in St Paul, Minnesota, but “her silence on the issues was deafening”.

Meanwhile, Republican nominee John McCain said yesterday he would bring Democrats into his Cabinet and administration as part of his attempt to change the political atmosphere in Washington.