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"Tonight for the first and only time before you pull the lever on November 6--Election 2012 is 26 days away, but really, who&amp;#x27;s counting (ahem)--the Vice Presidential candidates step into the debate arena in Danville, Ky. at Centre College. Very few predicted exactly what happened on stage at presidential debate numero uno, but created waves in both campaigns. Will tonight&amp;#x27;s event have as big of an impact? I asked two candidates running for U.S. Congress in November for their predictions. &amp;quot;The American people are looking for answers in this debate, and I hope we get them,&amp;quot; said Cheri Bustos (D), running for Representative in Illinois Congressional District 17, via email. &amp;quot;I think we&amp;amp;#8217;ll hear Vice President Biden ask Paul Ryan how he would explain to the 1.8 million seniors (57 percent of whom are women) here in Illinois who rely on Medicare benefits and would be forced to pay $6,400 more for their Medicare? And what would he say to the students here who were counting on the Pell Grants his budget would cut to help them pay for college? I think tonight we&amp;amp;#8217;ll hear Vice President Biden asking these kinds of questions, and we&amp;amp;#8217;ll hear from two men with very different visions for America, one that helps America&amp;amp;#8217;s working families and one that balances the budget on their backs.&amp;quot; Tonight&amp;#x27;s biggest issue for women to watch for is jobs and the economy, she says. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t think that women are different than men in their desire to see jobs as the number one priority of their leaders in Washington.&amp;quot; Jessica Puente Bradshaw (R), running for Representative in the newly-formed Texas Congressional District 34, is anticipating Paul Ryan&amp;#x27;s performance. &amp;quot;Paul Ryan is an individual who is both bold and passionate, not to mention he is a very intelligent and competent debater,&amp;quot; she told me via email. &amp;quot;As chairman of the Budget Committee he will have his facts and figures ready to go. I hope he articulates those facts into language and examples that most Americans will find easy to understand and relate to. The VP can debate but I suspect he will use humor to deflect attention from the issues. His biggest worry is going to have to explain the exploding debt. The tired line that blames President Bush satisfies less and less Americans.&amp;quot; The number one issue female voters should look out for in the debate? &amp;quot;The media might have us believe women&amp;#x27;s reproductive rights is a major issue, [but] I don&amp;#x27;t believe it. As a mom I will say that the $16 trillion debt and how either administration is going to slow it down is my biggest concern. Why? Because it&amp;#x27;s my children that will be the ones working hard to pay it down. Their standard of living will suffer because we are living off our children&amp;#x27;s credit.&amp;quot; What do you think we&amp;#x27;ll see from the predictions above? Have anything else to add? If you&amp;#x27;ve been trying to stay away from other media coverage, and I know lots of you have mentioned in your comments that you have, many have mentioned that Biden has a lot of experience debating, but Ryan has a lot of young spirt--and a whole lot of momentum following the first presidential debate. Who do you think has more of an advantage at the podium? Which VP candidate has more of an advantage going into tonight&amp;#x27;s debate? If you missed what more female candidates said about the first presidential debate, read it here: Marsha Blackburn, Maggie Hassan, and Renee Ellmers spoke to me last week. Photos: Bustos: Courtesy of Emily&amp;#x27;s List; Bradshaw: Courtesy of Texans for Jessica"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2012/10/tonights-vp-debate-2-female-co>