The streets of Danville, Kentucky are idyllic and calm. Usually.
But “Spin Alley,” the real world space for the traditional no-holds-barred debate about the debate that has become a popular part of political watching in American politics is set up and it might be a rougher road. It’s the middle of the Centre College campus and the combatants are polishing their gloves.
As tonight’s debate between Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Paul Ryan nears its 9 p.m. start time, the pipe and drape is up, the lights and director’s chairs positioned, the monitors tested and the wall-sized campaign graphics “ROMNEY/RYAN” and “FORWARD — Obama” are positioned in their opposite corners.
The politicians and media personalities who will make up the undercard and the Main Events in the battle for message direction are squaring off in their 6 foot by 8 foot corners and the tailoring in the place just keeps getting better as the important hour moves closer.
Television newsman David Gregory was seen making his way down the stairs, just before Kentucky’s freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Bowling Green) made his way up them….only to run straight into U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Louisville). The rightest of the Tea Party shakes the hand of a progressive Democrat and, because the spinning hasn’t yet begun, asks about his golf game.
We’ll bring you quotations and photos from “Spin Alley” tonight as the stakes and the political tensions go higher for what the locals are calling the “Thrill in the Ville,” the vice presidential debate at Centre College in Danville.
