AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
- Valerie Biden Owens says Sarah Palin did “pretty well” in the 2008 vice presidential debate with Joe Biden.
- In her new memoir “Growing Up Biden,” Owens was critical of the Alaskan, but called her “a force.”
- “She looked like apple pie and sunshine, but she wasn’t that tasteful,” Owens wrote in the book.
Valerie Biden Owens said former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin did “pretty well” during the October 2008 vice presidential debate with her brother, then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, according to her new memoir.
In the book, “Growing Up Biden: A Memoir,” Owens spoke of her expectations of Palin headed into the widely-anticipated matchup between the veteran Democratic lawmaker and the then-rising star Republican who catapulted onto the national scene after then-Arizona Sen. John McCain tapped her to be his running mate.
While Owens spoke of Palin as a “worthy opponent,” she also questioned her qualifications as a potential commander-in-chief.
“She wasn’t qualified to sit next to the leader of the free world, much less to take his place, but as a purely political animal, she was a force,” Owens wrote in the book. “She looked like apple pie and sunshine, but she wasn’t that tasteful.”
She continued: “She would and did draw first blood, but we knew she would label Joe a bully if he responded. She reminded me of Jane Brady, Joe’s opponent in the 1990 Senate race, who took a similar no-boundaries approach.”
Owens went on to mention the September 2000 New York Senate debate between then-first lady Hillary Clinton and then-Republican Rep. Rick Lazio. During the event, the GOP lawmaker pressed his Democratic opponent to sign a pledge disavowing “soft money” — or contributions to parties or committees for the benefit of a candidate — while onstage.
“Joe had to be careful lest he draw comparisons to Rick Lazio. … During their first debate, Lazio demanded she [Clinton] sign a pledge to reject ‘soft money,’ going so far as to leave his podium and shove it in front of her, invading her space,” Owens wrote.
She added: “In that moment, Lazio became the face of misogyny. My guess is that Palin’s strategy was to provoke a similar moment from Joe.”
Owens then went on to say that Palin generally strayed from directly answering questions from the moderator — the late PBS journalist Gwen Ifill — but was not overly critical of her performance.
“From my vantage point in the front row, I thought she did pretty well,” Owens wrote. “She ignored the moderator’s questions, but that was her entire strategy.”
During the debate, Palin said that she might answer questions “the way that either the moderator or you want to hear,” but contended that she would “talk straight to the American people.”
Owens wrote: “She was feisty, and she understood that people might be rooting for her just because she was the underdog.”
The debate was famously parodied in a “Saturday Night Live” skit, with Tina Fey playing Palin and Queen Latifah acting as Ifill. The actor Jason Sudeikis played Biden.
The presidential sister went on to share other personal details of that October night in Missouri, recalling that she sat in the first row next to now-first lady Jill Biden and was envious of her “poker face.”
Owens also said that the then-senator’s eldest son, Beau — who died in May 2015 at age 46 — was leaving for his military service in Iraq the next day but was backstage with his father alongside his brother, Hunter.
Biden and his presidential running mate — then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama — went on to easily defeat McCain and Palin in the November general election, securing 365 electoral votes to 173 for the GOP ticket. They were reelected in 2012.
In 2020, Biden was elected to the presidency on a ticket with then-California Sen. Kamala Harris.
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