The expectations game

Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are both playing possum pertaining to their much-anticipated one and only vice presidential debate next month.

"It’s kind of hard to prepare, because I don’t know what she thinks," Biden said in an interview to air tonight on CBS, according to Time's Mark Halperin.

"Senator Biden has a tremendous amount of experience," Palin said in an interview aired Thursday night on Fox News Channel. "I think he was first elected when I was like in second grade. He's been in there a long, long, long time. So he's got the experience. He probably has the sound bites. He has the rhetoric. He knows what's expected of him. He is a great debater, also. So yes, it's going to be quite a task in front of me.”

At this rate, the expectations will be so lowered for their performances that they'll get points for just showing up.

In any case, mark your calendars: 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 2, live from Washington University in St. Louis.