McCain defends 'maverick' running mate

Republican presidential nominee John McCain defended his controversial running mate Sarah Palin today as the only vice presidential debate of the 2008 election loomed.

The moose-hunting governor of Alaska will take on veteran politician Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s vice presidential nominee, in St Louis, Missouri, on Thursday night.

Mr McCain described her as “a bit of a maverick” at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, today after it emerged she contradicted his policy against talking publicly about attacking terrorist targets in Pakistan.

“She will be my partner in reforming everything that’s broken in Washington, and she is a leader who knows what it means to put her country first,” he said.

“Sarah has a debate this week against my friend and colleague Joe Biden.

“He is a good man. But his is not the heart of a reformer, and if there’s one thing every voter I’ve met this year agrees on, it’s the need for big, tough reforms.

“We need the kind of reforms that require us to ruffle feathers and take on the entrenched special interests. And that’s Governor Palin’s speciality.”

His surprise selection of Mrs Palin reinvigorated his campaign earlier this month, but criticism of her has increased after a series of poor performances in TV interviews.

Last week, nearly half the respondents in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll said she was unqualified to be president, while one in three said they were “not at all” comfortable with the idea of Mrs Palin as vice president, up five points from a poll in early September.

Today, she will head to Mr McCain’s ranch in Arizona, where campaign manager Rick Davis and senior adviser Steve Schmidt are planning to coach her ahead of the debate, senior advisers told the Wall Street Journal.

McCain campaign officials denied any problems.

Tucker Eskew, a counsellor for Mrs Palin, said: “The nature of political campaigns, with all their ups and downs, is for insiders and outsiders and no-siders to register complaints, often anonymously.

“We all in this campaign understand that, and we’re not distracted by it, even as we welcome well-intentioned and good advice.”

But some observers have expressed worries that Mrs Palin may be “overprepared”.

Scott Reed, a Republican strategist, told the newspaper: “It’s time to let Palin be Palin – and let it all hang out.”

Another adviser said: “We’ve got four days. People love Sarah Palin and she’s got a unique personality and presence we need to bring out – not shut down.”

She has also been repeatedly lampooned on US television show Saturday Night Live, where she was portrayed by comedian Tina Fey, and the clips have been played over and again on US television.

In interviews with CBS News’ Katie Couric she fumbled points and was unable to give an example of Mr McCain’s proposals for reforming the nation’s banking industry.

“I’ll try to find some and I’ll bring them to you,” she said eventually.

And in her first major interview, with ABC, she appeared stumped when asked about the so-called “Bush Doctrine”, the six-year-old US policy of military pre-emption.

Some conservative commentators have even called for her to withdraw from the race.

Writing in the National Review last week, conservative commentator Kathleen Parker said: “My cringe reflex is exhausted.

“Palin’s recent interviews... all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate – who is clearly out of her league.”

She said Mrs Palin should “save McCain, her party and the country she loves” by announcing that she wanted to resign for family reasons.

“No one would criticise a mother who puts her family first.”

And David Letterman, the US television chat show host, said her meetings with world leaders at the United Nations in New York last week, designed to boost her foreign policy experience, looked like “take your daughter to work day”.

But her rival in Thursday’s debate is no stranger to making gaffes either.

Mr Biden, who has three decades of experience in the US Senate and chairs its Foreign Relations Committee, is known for his endless chatter and rather careless nature, which has led him to make a series of mistakes.

The 65-year-old Delaware senator has even been at odds with Mr Obama, calling one of his campaign adverts “terrible” and disagreeing with him over some aspects of the US government’s handling of the financial crisis.

The Republicans responded, running a Biden “gaffe clock” on their national committee website, counting the “time since Biden’s last gaffe”.