that was REAL?!

I didn't realize that Tina Fey's nonsensical bailout answer was a pretty close parody of a real answer Palin gave.

Holy God. And Howard Kurtz is now claiming that CBS has two more segments to show, and they're both going to be embarrassing as well. Kudos to Katie Couric: say what you will about her job anchoring CBS News so far (and believe me, I have), she has exposed Sarah Palin in a way that no other interviewer has, and her ABC competitor Charles Gibson got the first crack. This interview may save Couric's career at Palin's expense.

Against my better judgment not to try to lower expectations for Palin, I can't help but get a little more excited about the upcoming VP debate. This woman is an absolutely trainwreck of a candidate.

The cautious approach would be for Biden to give her a pretty wide berth, referring to her merely as "Governor" (when he addresses her at all) and avoiding any appearance of bullying, denying her an opportunity to win any pity points. She's clearly a "just give her enough rope to hang herself" kind of candidate. That's how you win the independents, and it's almost certainly what Biden's going to do.

There's also a part of me, however, that says you don't go easy on a clearly uncomfortable novice and give them the chance to gain their footing; you pressure them and knock them off balance and make them make a mistake. It's a risk because Biden comes off looking like the bad guy if she doesn't crack under pressure, but it also dramatically increases the chances of her making a serious mistake on national TV. Biden can always deflect some of the heat he would take for not going easy on her by turning the GOP's own anti-Obama and -Clinton argument on her: "This shows how irresponsible John McCain is in picking such an unqualified running mate. If she can't handle me, how on earth could she handle Putin?" (just stay away the old "politics ain't beanbag" aphorism, since the complete statement is, in fact, a sexist dismissal of women in politics). The image of Palin as hopelessly unprepared for the job is already congealing in the public mind; with the right strategy and execution, Biden could sink not only the McCain campaign, but her political career.