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Editor’s Note: When the news media realized that Barack Obama’s speeches generated higher ratings than John McCain’s, the Republicans still browbeat the networks to give McCain roughly equal time even if fewer people were watching.

Now, ABC News has turned over nearly two nights of evening news coverage to an exclusive interview with GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, prompting writer Mary MacElveen to call for equal time for Palin's counterpart, Joe Biden:

With the media’s wall-to-wall coverage of Sarah Palin, including a speech in which she again lied as she sent her son off to war by tying Iraq to the 9/11 attacks, one must ask: Where is Joe Biden?

How come the media is not giving him equal time to make his case to the viewers as to why both he and Barack Obama are the true agents of change.

While John McCain talks a good game of being the candidate of change: Exactly what change has he brought to the Senate that has made the lives of Americans a little bit easier or that has addressed the nation’s astronomical problems?

I think to balance Palin’s interview with Charlie Gibson of ABC News, Gibson must also interview Joe Biden so that people can see a clear difference if God forbid something were to happen to Barack Obama should he go on to win the presidency.

In a video I made for Google entitled, "Sarah Stop Lying," I said, “If the media is going to concentrate on the bottom part of the ticket, if that three o’clock call should come into the White House: Who would they want answering the phone? Would they want Joe Biden or Sarah Palin?” I think that is a fair question to ask.

Much has been made of Sarah Palin’s lack of knowledge when it comes to foreign policy and even I have brought it up. This is where Joe Biden has the upper hand. He is after all the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Let Biden answer the same kind of questions that Palin did. In doing so, we the people can witness how he answers critical questions about national security.

Do we as Americans have to go to such sites as YouTube.com to find out for ourselves who is the most prepared based upon the bottom of the ticket?

Many foreign experts have had to go before the Foreign Relations Committee and face Biden’s questions, too. For example, Biden questioned General David Petraeus in great detail about the Iraq War “surge.”

As Sarah Palin went over the top suggesting we might have to go to war with Russia if it attacked Georgia, please take note of Biden’s in-depth questioning about the Iraq War and his calm manner.

Folks – while Senate hearings can be boring at times – our future depends upon how questions are answered.  Not much is gained from interviews on Leno or Letterman.

Again, focusing in on the bottom part of the ticket, here is a “Meet the Press” interview between Joe Biden and the late Tim Russert discussing when we could leave Iraq and under what circumstances.

By the way, Biden too showed he was a maverick in stating he would buck his own party to continue funding the troops when some opposed it. Can Sarah Palin answer these questions right now and in great detail?

I am left wondering why Americans settle for candidates such as Palin who do not know of what they speak.

I suppose most Americans – and I am praying this so – would rather feel safe with a vice president who can call up any leader in the free world and discuss any number of vital issues to keep Americans safe in a dangerous world.

Then again, while I was out shopping the other day, a man said of Palin that she was a breath of fresh air. When I questioned him how? He could not give me an answer.  I think he based his opinion on her lying stump speeches.

Now, after Sarah Palin had to be prompted three times as to her understanding of the Bush Doctrine, it might be worth reading this USA Today article from June 6, 2003, entitled “Bush's war doctrine questioned.”

Here is what was written of Joe Biden: “Sen. Joseph Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he worries that Bush administration officials may come to Congress with a valid warning but fail to win support because of lingering doubts about Iraq.”

It goes on to quote Biden saying, “They're damaged, period … I think it undercuts our credibility. In that sense, I think it weakens us."

I would say that the operative word there was credibility and if we do not have a vice president with the credentials like Joe Biden’s – and end up with a vice president like Palin who didn’t even know what the Bush Doctrine was – it will lessen any credibility we have left in this world. …

In closing, I think it is extremely important that we as Americans contact ABC News and demand that Charlie Gibson interview Joe Biden.

I think it will show a clear difference about who is prepared and not prepared to lead this nation if heaven forbid something were to happen to either a President Obama or a President McCain.

ABC’s phone number is, (212) 456-7777 and their e-mail address is, [email protected]. I would call since e-mails can be deleted.

Mary MacElveen, a Long Island-based writer, can be reached at her e-mail address, [email protected]

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