No, Palin HAS no record. That's the thing. She's a small town mayor become governor of a state that's smaller than the city I was born in. That, plus being a mom and beauty pageant contestant, are her only qualifications. Joltin' Joe Biden may get his adrenaline pumping and say some wack shit, but he has 35 years in Congress to draw on. The man knows governance.

What this comes down to is that the VP candidate's main job is to appear potentially presidential. Biden, for all his foot-in-mouth disease, appears presidential via the gravitas of his age and his long Senate experience and record. Is there anyone who doesn't own the entire Left Behind series of novels who still thinks Georgia Bush is REMOTELY presidential?

Dare I remind everyone that "Sarah Palin" rearranged is "nasal harpi"? I rest my case.

Brilliant. That's the reference I've been fishing for for about two days. From now on, McCain for me is Norma Desmond, desperately chasing after C.B. DeMille to get him to make their next big picture when all he wants to do is buy her car.

Ironically, McCain actually looks more like Erich von Stroheim, who played Norma's manservant.

Ready for your close-up, John? I thought not.

I just want to see Obama utter two words in tonight's debate:

"Keating Five."

I suspect we would see McCain and his entire campaign staff quickly suspend respiration and cardiac activity.

That's one way to look at things, your trollship. Of course, it's a delusional and grossly stupid way, but whatever puts wind in your sails. We in the reality-based community see McCain as a panicked old fart desperate to grab a headline in a situation that didn't need him, running off in all directions like a headless chicken while Obama stayed cool and--what's the word I'm looking for?--oh, yeah: presidential.

Presidential vs. Panicked. Add in one of the most pathetic, overmatched performances I've ever seen from a politician by Sarah "Georgia Bush" Palin with Katie Couric (Katie Couric, for God's sake, not Edward R. Murrow) and the McCain campaign is teetering on the edge of oblivion. Tomorrow's debate will bury it.

Mourners please omit flowers.

Does this mean McLame was for suspending his campaign before he was against it? I think that makes him a flip-flopper, and aren't only those weasely, Frenchified, America-hating liberals flip-floppers?

News flash, genius. The market meltdown was already well underway before Obama appeared on CBS, and in any case there's nothing any one person can do to stave it off, if it can be staved off at all. But better someone reacting coolly and with reasoned measures that racing around in panic mode like a Chicken Little media whore.

One of the most important things for Obama right now is to contrast with the panic, desperation and rudderlessness of McCain by appearing calm, cool and measured. Americans know that rushing to war was a disaster, and that rushing to bail out the biggest criminals in our economy will be one as well. Obama's smart to stay positive and chill on the issue. Let McLame run around trying to get photo ops and changing tack every second.

...pretty please, let them move Biden vs. Palin up and change the format to a more open one. Without a month to rehearse her bullshit, empty-headed talking points, Georgia Bush will look even more hopeless and maniacal than she will with the prep time.

Pretty, pretty, please? At least, Obama camp, make the suggestion so the McLame campaign can backpedal desperately.

Actually, I liked it. The "Talk Out of His Express" has a nice ring to it. Made me snicker.

I love how McLame agreed on the joint statement, then tried to undercut Obama by being first off the line. His handlers must dread getting up in the morning to see what damage this senile, angry man has done to his campaign that they will be called upon to repair. Again.

John McCain, titular head of the "You damned kids and your crazy rock music!" party.

Do you really believe that? I, for one, can falsify your statement immediately: I know 6 Republicans who have told me personally that they plan to vote for Obama because they are afraid that McCain would simply rubber-stamp the same disastrous Bush policies. Five are women, which should tell you something about the Palin effect on smart, educated women.

So right there, we're not at 100%. The fundamentalist Xtian contingent of the GOP may vote as a bloc, but moderates and old-line fiscal conservatives are pissed, and many of them are coming otu in support of Obama.

Didn't Howard Dean in 2006 prove that the 50 State Strategy actually does work?

Missus Palin's approval numbers are dropping like a paralyzed falcon. Her Troopergate cover-up is starting to dominate the blogs. The refusal of the McCain campaign to let this human insult to the democratic process appear freely in front of the non-Fox media without a script is pissing off the MSM to the point where they are boycotting coverage.

Yeah, I'd say Sarah Palin has about run her course. She was the new thing on the scene, and that always makes for a big bounce. She'll still appeal to the delusional, white trash Christian nutcase contingent, but women in particular are beginning to see her selection as the bit of contemptuous pandering it was. She's going to sink McCain, especially when she gets her clock cleaned in the the debate by Joe Biden.

And for anyone who's offended by my use of "white trash," I don't give a shit. It's time we started calling these reason-challenged, mouth-breathing hypocritical Religious Wrong motherfuckers what they are: the cancer of an informed electoral system. Hell, I'd halfway support going back to what the Framers had in mind and letting only the landed and educated vote. Democracy is too fragile to be trusted to Joe Sixpack, who won't vote for Obama because "I heard he was one of them Muslins."

...the election is Nov. 4, dumbass.