When Joe Biden and Paul Ryan debate in October, voters will be thinking about the candidates who aren’t on stage.
“The vice presidential debates, by and large, aren’t so much about the vice presidential candidates, but the presidential debates,” said Joel Goldstein, a leading scholar on the U.S. vice presidency and law professor at St. Louis University.
Vice President Biden and U.S. Rep. Ryan, R-Wis., have their only debate on Oct. 11 at Centre College in Danville, Ky. President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will face each other three times.
The vice presidential debates will offer a forum for Biden and Ryan to dissect the presidential candidates, say Goldstein and other experts on presidential and vice presidential debates. The pair will field questions about domestic and foreign policy issues from moderator Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News.
On Oct. 11, Syracuse residents can tune into the debate between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on channels WSTM NBC 3, on WTVH CBS 5, on WSYT FOX 68, on 9 WSYR and on WCNY- TV public broadcasting station of Central New York.
The format is determined by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The vice presidential debate will be divided into nine approximately ten-minute long time segments, according to a press release from the commission. Moderator Raddatz will pose a question at the start of each segment, allow each candidate two minutes to respond and use the remaining time for discussion.
Janet Brown, executive director of the presidential debate commission, praised the significance of the vice presidential debate. “It offers the only opportunity for citizens to see the candidates in the same environment answering the same questions,” said Brown in an emailed statement.
Goldstein, the vice presidential scholar, downplays the importance compared to the presidential debates for Obama and Romney. The vice presidential debates attract a smaller viewership, said Goldstein. And audiences can expect each candidate for vice presidency to focus on the others’ running mate instead of the other person on stage.
For Biden, that means questioning Romney’s track record, and for Ryan, that means questioning Obama’s policies to date, said Goldstein. “For both of them, the key is to not to focus on each other,” Goldstein said. “Biden will be focusing on Romney and Ryan will focus on Obama — not Biden.”
He predicts statements that Ryan will come under fire for controversial statements, such as his inaccurate description of running a marathon in under two hours. Biden will likely be pressed on areas he’s disagreed with President Obama.
Biden will also emphasize the Obama administration’s efforts toward economic recovery and attention to the middle class, Goldstein said, and Ryan will likely argue Romney’s approach will lead to greater economic recovery.
The questions posed during the debate will be determined by Raddatz, the moderator. But Benjamin Knoll, a political scientist at debate-host Centre College, anticipates questions about tax cuts and the economy. The candidates will also likely be questioned on foreign policy and asked how they would manage crises overseas, if they had to take over in the event of the president’s death or illness.
Knoll suggests this vice presidential debate will be particularly interesting because for the first time in history both vice presidential candidates are Roman Catholic. Religion has become intertwined with politics, Knoll said. He’s interested in seeing how the public will perceive two politicians who agree religiously but differ politically, he said.
Vice presidential debates do not heavily influence runaway presidential races where candidates are separated by wide margins, St. Louis University scholar Goldstein said. But the 2012 election is a closer election, he said, raising the stakes for the vice presidential debate.
Said Goldstein: “If it makes a little bit of an impact in a few swing states, that could be significant.”
(Debbie Truong is a junior majoring in newspaper and online journalism.)
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