I am surprised that the Dems have let McCain back into the race AND have allowed Palen to become a celebrity in the process. This is not good news for them because if she continues unchallenged, the GOP are beginning to see the next 12 years forming right before their very own eyes. Obviously, Palen has nothing to lose personally whether she wins or loses in 2008. The Dems need to stop relying on surrogates and have Obama/Biden personally begin to take her down. The Dems have to know that Palen will get a free ride forever until someone on the ticket says 'enough is enough' and that person is Biden. That is his %^%%$ job in this campaign and I have not heard a single word from him in 3 weeks.

Biden should attack this woman directly and in the same breath pound McCain for his cynically driven choice for VP. I am not saying that Palen is a bad person or a not a dedicated public servant, but she has no business running for VP. Biden seems to have lost his voice on this matter and has probably been told to hold his fire until the ONE debate. Bad mistake. Biden needs to go after her non-qualifications to be president right now and make her sweat the 90 minute debate. During a single debate, anything can happen and she could be free and clear to November 4th and beyond.

The VP debate will decide the election with 100M people tuned in. Half that number will tune into the other three debates because they promise to be "major boring" for 90 minutes.

Let's face it: Obama has a good head on his shoulders but he is also boring to listen to. Lots of "ums" are mixed in with his legalistic style and what you have is a senator giving a speech to an empty Senate chamber. McCain is even worse, so there is not a lot of excitement when either of these guys speak.

The singular pressure will be on Palen as she is clearly out of her depth, but Biden will have only one chance to land a knockout punch. If Biden fails and leaves the "problem" for another day, this race will be too close to call in November. I expect fireworks to go off at the VP debate.

Nobody has a complete understanding on the economy and if either Obama or McCain or posters on this blog claim otherwise, all of you are delusional. Both Obama and McCain are nowhere near a solution, even if one exists on what are the exact tradeoffs in the economy. The impact of the past 25 years of massive deregulation across many industries is that all players in the economy are on a risk/reward curve. Many of the things we now take for granted are the product of innovation that only would have occurred post-deregulation. Those who want more regulation, will have to sacrifice long-term growth, innovation and full employment as a consequence. What politician is going to sign up for that? None that I know. Who wants to return to the 60's and 70's where unemployment was always 8%, inflation was 10-12%, marginal tax rates were 70% for individuals and no jobs for English majors coming out of college. So be careful what you wish for.

After this Thursday's likely debacle in front of 100M people, the Palin honeymoon will probably be over and McCain is left with 2 choices:

1. Dump her and bring in Huckabee. McCain says: "Hey look, I gave her a chance but she did not work out. She is not up to the task, she knows it and she agrees to withdraw. I believe in equal opportunity for all, blah, blah, blah, so FRIENDS, I am the real maverick here."

or

2. McCain keeps her and loses by 15 points and by 100 electoral votes.

I give her a 60% chance of exceeding rather low expectations and McCain keeps her but has to work harder to cover for her, a 30% chance of her being ridiculed forever as no other national candidate has in recent memory and getting "fired" the next day and a 10% of doing so well that she knocks Biden off stride and McCain is seen as a genius.

In your rather crude way, you do have a point. Salon is focusing too much space on "you know who" while the U.S. economy is being "decapitated" as we speak.

I wonder if RT even has a clue what a CDS is but I can assure her that it is not an STD.

Katie Couric was tossing her a "softball" about what does she read everyday. It's a typical Larry King question and if she botched that question, how can she talk for 5 minutes about the need for (or against) deregulation of the financial markets or the future of Western Civ? IF she comes across even moderately articulate on some of these issues, she lives for another day. If not, McCain will dump her by this weekend.

It's really all over and Obama should start thinking about his Secy of Defense and State, etc. Maybe even announcing them this weekend. Nothing changed tonite and Obama can start the process of consolidating his leads in key states.

But, I also think Joan is happy that Palin did not "bomb" tonite and thus will not find herself "fired" or humiliated in the morning. She clearly was under enormous pressure to perform tonite and I think she did meet that minimal standard, and then some. Although Biden won on points, charitable people also don't want to see someone self-destruct or melt down in front of a worldwide audience. And it sends a positive image that a woman from rural America can stand up and take this kind of heat for 90 minutes and walk away in one piece.

I still don't think she has a real clue what she is talking about but we have not heard the last of her either.