The diagnosis carries much danger. The outcome looks grim. Presidential elections are officially routine.

The American people should have seen this coming from years of voting for candidates who all promise the same outcome. Words like: “economy,” “big-business,” “families,” “values” and “future” took over the political debate years ago. Somewhere along the way, candidates stopped speaking about new issues and fell onto a soft bed of standards.

Senators and presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain now suffer from this unfortunate illness, and they both have one chance for a cure — vice-presidential candidates.

Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin hold the cure.

Ferald Bryan, assistant professor of communications, thinks the Palin vs. Biden debate is more interesting and entertaining than the Obama vs. McCain debate.

“You do have to look at the whole package,” Bryan said. “Asking if [Palin or Biden] are qualified to be president is important.”

American history agrees. President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew both left office after Watergate. Speaker of the House Gerald Ford then became president. If the unspeakable ever happens, elected officials fill the role of president in a manner of succession. Vice presidents are simply second in line and their politics should always be a factor at the ballot box.

Kerith Woodyard, assistant professor of communication, believes all debates have coached elements to them but sees more room for Palin and Biden to break away from routine.

“I think that on foreign policy, Biden has more experience and can draw from that,” Woodyard said. “There are a lot of people who see Palin as a fresh face.”

With both vice-presidential candidates now exposed to the masses, Biden’s and Palin’s debate answers can provide direction to undecided voters.

Often voters consider the presidential elections a method to have one person and one party in the White House. That mode of thought leaves little room for presidential candidates to vary from their rehearsed answers. But vice-presidential debates by default call for more political attacks and less scripted answers. Candidates who are not campaign figureheads create poignant politics. They are the cure, and their variance can cure the world of politics-as-usual.