Prize fighters

Politics: As the candidates prepare to go toe-to-toe in debates, history says a lot is at stake | Jamie Dean

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

More than three weeks before Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, were set to meet in St. Louis for their Oct. 2 vice presidential debate, Biden was already predicting a messy fight.

"She's going to make it as personal as she can. She's going to take a lot of straight lefts and jabs at me, she's going to try to get me to respond in a personal way," Biden told a Chicago audience. "That's not my style. I'm not going to do it."

Throughout September, staffers and allies were prepping candidates for the three presidential debates and the one VP debate that could produce the decisive moments within a tight struggle. Biden, for example, tapped Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to stand in for Palin during debate rehearsals. Despite sharp ideological differences with Palin, Granholm bears some similarities to the candidate: She is a 49-year-old governor with three children. (Palin, 44, is a first-term governor with five children.)