In Wisconsin Town, Seniors React To Debate

The McCain campaign's decision to pull staff out of Michigan makes nearby battleground states like Wisconsin and Minnesota all the more important in the presidential election.

A sizable portion of voters in Wisconsin and Minnesota are over age 50. Both states have traditionally had fierce independent streaks, and recent polling suggests about 1 in 4 voters in those swing states could be swayed to vote for one candidate or the other based on their performances in the debates.

So it was within that context that the AARP chapters of Wisconsin and Minnesota hosted a vice presidential debate-watching party in the border city of Superior, Wis. There, 62 people from Superior and Duluth, Minn., ate chicken parmesan and watched Joe Biden and Sarah Palin square off on a giant projection screen at an inn along the Lake Superior lakefront.

Afterward, many of the debate watchers said the performances reinforced their reasons for supporting one presidential ticket or the other, though some opinions of the vice presidential candidates changed.

"It somewhat changed me, a little bit; I thought [the debate] was a wash," said Mike Casey, an undecided voter from Duluth.

Casey says Palin's performance surprised him, while Biden held his own. "He just has that presidential look, you know? She doesn't. ... But on the other hand, she seems just as sharp as he is. I don't think he tricked her up in any way; I don't think she blundered anything."

Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska, also impressed Tony Schetta of Wrenshall, Minn. He says he identifies with Palin, while Biden, a Democratic senator from Delaware, just doesn't speak his language.

"He's been in the Senate for 36 years, so how the hell does he know what we're doing out here?" Schetta said. "He don't. She does. She might be, whatever you call it, a little schoolgirl or whatever, but I'll tell you what, she'd be bringing something refreshing that I can see to this ticket."

But Grace Miller of Duluth found Palin too evasive when asked direct questions.

"She just ignored an answer and went onto a different subject," Miller said.

And Duluth resident Doris VanKalberg said there was much that the two candidates either glossed over or didn't bring up.

"They did a good job," she said, "but they didn't hit on the health care so much. And that's such an important thing. And the Social Security — those are things that seniors are really interested in."

And that was a sore spot with all the AARP members watching the debate. "They skimmed right over them — health care, Social Security," said Philip Kukowski of Superior. "Both of them."

AARP members kept track of those important issues, too. They made tally marks on a white board at the front of the room to the left of the TV screen whenever health care or Social Security was addressed. Richard Ratchen of Phillips, Wis., notes that there weren't many marks.

"To me, the debate — through possibly the moderator's questions — just skimmed over these two very serious topics to our lives," said Ratchen.

Others complained that there wasn't enough time in the debate to discuss Medicare and the Part D benefit, education and energy independence.

Few of the debate watchers were interested in declaring a winner.

Ratchen summed it up this way: "I think the role of the vice presidential candidate is to support their presidential team member and look at the weak spots where they can criticize their opponent's candidate, and I think they both did that."