There have been a couple times when Palin almost started chittering as if a big spring were going to pop out of her head like a broken cartoon clock. You can tell she is concentrating on an almost superhuman level and she's barely getting by.

Does Palin ever answer the question asked?

Biden set her up with the"i'm not sure if that is what they think", when gwen asked palin what the deal was she changed the question. Yikes

in my own head, from the whiplash of the topic change she just made, from the question she was asked abougt the mortgage crisis to her energy plan....

Um, yeah, how interesting, now let me talk about me for a while.

Joe needs to hold her feet to the fire when she tries to blatantly switch topics like that. She had no clue how to answer questions concerning bankruptcy!

She is absolutely not answering the questions and instead of rebuttals, she continues to talk about completely off subject things. It's almost as if they gave her a script to follow and she's determined to follow it and ignore Gwen and Joe.

I just don't see how she can sustain this for another hour. And if she refers to her career as mayor just one more time . . .brittle, and yes, how about just answering the damn question.

Palin seemed to start out kind of strong, if a bit too "folksy", but the question on climate change has her babbling wildly already.

Che started off strong. Main St. America loves cliches, sorry. She's made some tactical errors recently. I predict she is going to fall apart soon. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking....better not be.

I'd like to talk about energy....

...if Ifill doen't make her answer a question.

I'm not going to post a letter about this topic. I'd rather post a letter about my very own topic. Because I'm a maverick, darn it!

I know it's my own fault, but I CAN'T ACTUALLY WATCH THIS, lest it become dangerous to my health.

Ergo, I'm counting on the sane people here and on my husband, who is sequestered in the family room, because he has a stronger stomach than I have. I can hear him muttering in outrage, but not the words...not yet, anyway...

?????????????????

Did anyone else see Sarah Palin's line about not really caring about what Joe Biden or Gwen Ifill have to say, and speaking directly to the American people, coming from a mile away?

But at the same time I thought, "did she really say that out loud?"

Ifill just asked Palin flat-out if McCain opposes the ability for judges to readjust the principal on mortgages (as charged by Biden), and she says "No that is not true, but ..." [I've got to go back to making some talking point I almost have the hang of].

Palin likes the "rearing head" thing.

Biden says global warming is man-made. Bold liberal stuff. Joementum, but now he's been talking about "clean-coal."

Palin wants to talk about how hungry Americans are to tap into the domestic energy sources, and the chant is "Drill, Drill, Drill!" She says Biden calls drilling "rape"! But Palin also supports capping emissions.

But when you don't know the issues this is going to happen. And Biden's not doing badly.

When he claimed that Obama warned about a coming crisis with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that John McCain opposed more regulation of those two GSE's.

That is a falsehood. A flat-out, bald-faced lie.

The Wall Street Journal, the Republicans' bible, has been warning the world about Fannie and Freddie for years:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046287/posts

As for McCain? Watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxgSubmiGt8

I've heard a lot in the past month about what an insult the choice of Sarah Palin is to women. Every time I hear her simplistic rhetoric, as if she's speaking to children, even if she's not fumbling like in the Couric interview, I think what an insult she is to me and all adults in America.

Seriously, she just called him that. Her brain msut be racing trying to follow that script. And earlier, she actually rolled her eyes, a junior high touch if I ever saw one.

And he did not do it. He did not say that, even if we drill to the max, we never will get Sarah's energy independence.

There have been a couple times when Palin almost started chittering as if a big spring were going to pop out of her head like a broken cartoon clock.

Sarah's doing that beauty pageant smile/chatter. These are serious subjects and it's just giving me the willies. She is way too damn perky for the occasion.

"Gwen, before I answer this next question, let me go back to the non-answer Gov. Palin just made. When it comes to being prepared to take over as the leader of the free world, you just cannot ignore the issues you don't understand. You cannot cherry pick the issues and only respond to the ones you've been coached on."

It really doesn't matter if she is "tolerant" of gays since the GOP will give power to those who are not.

Stated that Sarah basically stated that she supports civic equality for homosexual couples, asked her to confirm it, and she dodged.

Senator Obama did a good job in the last debate in pointing out that there was more than one version of the bill; one that he supported and another one that McCain supported.

Leprosy? Sweat? Fear?

C'mon, Salon! It's been almost 25 minutes since your last "live" blogging?

Sez Joe, with all due respect I didn't hear a plan. More ramblings from Governor Palin.

There's an old lawyer joke:

If the facts are on your side, you pound on the facts.

If the law is on your side, you pound on the law.

If neither the facts nor the law are on your side, you pound on the table.

Sarah Palin does not have to answer any questions. In fact, if she attempted to answer, like she did in her last two interviews, she would have been shown to look ignorant and not very bright.

However, all she has to do is act folksy, talk about how gosh durnit, she's going to be for the people, and a few pseudo-facts.

She did this in her last gubernatorial debate. You will notice she'll keep coming to energy issues, she'll keep coming back to how she faced the greedy corporations in Alaska, and how she helps the people. The format prevents direct interaction between her and Biden. It doesn't allow the moderator to keep questioning her about details. This debate was made for her strength.

I sometimes wonder if her last two flubbed interviews were on purpose as part of setting low expectations. She will exceed them. Add the Republican spinning heads, and the fact that Biden didn't deliver her head on a post means she won.

Fortunately, vice presidential debates mean little in the election scheme. Otherwise, Bush Sr. would have lost the first go around. However, this might be enough to stop the hemorrhaging in the McCain/Palin campaign. The cacophony of conservative commentators saying Palin should leave the ticket wasn't helping his campaign.