Contact: Valerie Mosher, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, 202-488-7000, ext. 126

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 /Standard Newswire/ -- Thursday night's vice-presidential debates will be a pivotal event in this year's presidential election.  The two political parties agreed on a format that will allow the moderator, Gwen Ifill of PBS, complete freedom in choosing the questions.  The candidates will stand behind podiums (rather than sit at a table) and have 90 seconds of response time for each question, with two minutes for discussion between the candidates.

Dr. Janice Crouse, political commentator for Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, is an expert on presidential communication.  The former presidential speechwriter (Bush 41) said, "In a move distinctly different from Eisenhower's abandonment of Richard Nixon when he got in trouble with the press, John McCain (R-Arizona) invited Palin to his ranch in Sedona, Arizona, where she will spend two days preparing for the debate -- thus sending a signal of his continued support for his veep pick and providing a haven where she will be able to regroup from the vicious attacks and regain her confidence before she faces the ultimate test of her candidacy."

Crouse advised Palin:

(1)   First and foremost, be yourself, and remember -- as Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense -- we are endowed with the intelligence to equip us for self-governance: the colonists didn't need a monarch to rule them, Reagan didn't need State Department geeks to tell him how to win the Cold War, and you don't need inside-the-beltway pundits to tell you how to be Vice President.  Your life experiences and intuition equip you just fine for the job.

(2)   You don't have to know everything or be an expert in foreign affairs; you are training for a debate, not a television quiz show like Jeopardy.  If you duck and dodge like the vast majority of Washington pols, you will not retain the public's admiration (52 percent favorability rating even after all the attacks).

(3)   Counter Sen. Joe Biden's (D-Delaware) phony talk about his blue-collar background with the facts regarding the elitism of the leftist ticket, focusing on Sen. Obama's (D-Illinois) extreme voting record, his radical friends and associates, and the extraordinary number of Obama earmarks in his short Senate tenure. 

(4)   Push your actual executive decision-making experience in contrast to Obama's appalling number of "present" votes during his Senate tenure.

(5)   Emphasize the role of Frank Raines (Obama's financial advisor) and the leftist Congress in the current financial crisis.

(6)   Last, your primary job is to convince the public that you can be trusted, that you are honest, and that you are authentic.  The election, ultimately, will depend on the public's assessment of the candidates' trustworthiness -- especially in this time of national upheaval over the national financial crisis.