Biden His Time

December 2, 2008
Biden His Time

There are some very good, well-meaning people out there who are still fighting the last war.

The election is over. McCain and Palin lost. Obama and Biden won. That isn't going to change. There are many people who are absolutely convinced that Obama is not legally qualified for the office. The primary theory being that he was born in Kenya as his grandmother and other family members claimed. If indeed, he was not ... if he was born in Hawaii ... why not produce the "vault" birth certificate and simply shut everyone up instead of using every imaginable twist and turn to avoid doing so ... even in legal actions where he has been sued to make him produce it or face disqualification. There is a major ongoing petition drive to force him to produce it.

At this point, however, despite the best of intentions, this effort seems worse than useless as can be demonstrated by "editing" the competing bumper sticker contingents:

What people don't seem to realize is that if they actually managed to tilt over the windmill, we would be in at least as bad a position and actually, it would likely be worse. Perhaps significantly so.

The petition in itself may be worth signing. Not because it will do any tangible good but because it is important to keep the heat on and make people realize that not everyone is a kool-aid drinker.

That said … the answer to the question that many of the "still hopefuls" are gleefully asking: "What would happen if Obama was really proven to not qualify for the office?" is quite simple, clear-cut, and … not something to look forward to.

I don’t think it makes any difference whether it happened before or after he was sworn in, although I’m not positive about that. But certainly after January 20 what happens is: Joe “open mouth to change feet” Biden becomes President. Who knows? He may even have signed the petition under a pseudonym. Just Biden his time.

We all know a lot about Joe Biden and his record. It is hard not to since the man has been in the Senate for something like 36 years. There are few such well-known people whose views and philosophies are more antithetical to "truth, right and good" than Biden’s. And he’s not some wishy washy populist. He is dead set in his beliefs and ideologies by now. He is known as, and proud to wear the mantle of “liberal internationalist”. He is … well, in addition to itemizing his well-documented flat-out lies, I could spend an hour describing Biden’s politics, but suffice to say that I don’t think Obama ever flanked him to the left.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Obama is likely to prove to be a disaster for America. But the election is over; the Democrats won and even if we got rid of Obama we don’t get another crack at electing someone else. We get Biden. I fear that Obama may be as bad as Biden would be … although it would be hard to be much worse.

But(!) At least Obama, being younger, is, perhaps, not as set in his ways or as committed to his ideologies as Biden is. With him there is at least a chance that he will be “less terrible” than Biden. (Although I think Obama is really just a puppet anyway, so it probably makes no difference.)

If I sound like I’m defending him or even that I think he might be “ok” … I’m not. I'm an optimist at heart, however. It may be that someone elected on such a liberal platform is the only one who could get away with doing some things that the conservatives and libertarians would like to see done. Like only Nixon could go to China. Perhaps only Obama can actually tackle the Big Boy globalists and kneecap them before they destroy life as we know it. Only time will tell with Obama.

But there is no question with Biden. He is as set in his ways and beliefs as one can be. There is no "roll of the dice and hoping" like we (optimists in spite of all the reasons why we shouldn't be) are (having to do) with Obama.

All I’m saying is that even if we were successful in tossing him … I don’t know that we’d be in any better position than we are now. In fact ... I'd say the chances that things would improve are zip. I for one ... after some contemplation of the matter ... have decided that I should change horses in the middle of the stream since ... I finally realized we aren't in the middle of the stream any longer. We're on the far bank and the Dems won. Biden would be at least as bad as Obama and probably worse.

Ergo ... At this point, I think we are likely to be better served to do what we can to keep Obama in office!

Turkeys

November 21, 2008
Turkeys

I thought I had done enough about Sarah Palin for awhile. There are other important things to discuss! How the world, especially the Islamic world, is reacting to Obama's election. Another glance at the ridda (apostasy) issue. What Obama's proposed appointments tell about how he will actually govern. What his choice for Secretary of State will mean ...

Instead I'm doing yet another column on our famous/infamous Governor and the media. In fact, I'm afraid this isn't going to end the "theme" either. She is still top-level international news.

It is uncanny. Biden has been around and involved in critical national and international matters for over 36 years. Palin probably made the front page of a newspaper not published in Alaska for the first time less than four months ago. If you Google "Biden" you get 25,000,000 hits. Quite respectable! That's a lot of people talking about you! Google "Palin", however, and you get 95,000,000 hits! Let that number sink in. 95 MILLION hits! The latest estimate of the population of the United States according to the U.S. Census Bureau is 305,726,193. Of course this is comparing apples and oranges ... but there are nearly 1/3 as many "Google available and located" documents mentioning Palin as there are people in this country. For some reason that seems mind-boggling to me.

Nor is it because "Palin" is a more common name. Put the name in quotes and run "Sarah Palin" and you get 48,500,000 hits. "Joe Biden" only gets you 12,000,000. Even "Hillary Clinton" only gets 28,700,000 and she's "been around" in the public consciousness a bit longer than Sarah Palin has also.

Stories about her remain at the top of the national interest meter. Articles about her are cited at the top of nearly every "most popular story" list put out by the major news agencies.

Oh, the media still has a nasty streak that they can't seem to break when they get the opportunity to make fun of her. Like, for instance, the topic of this column: the nonsensical big "top news story" about Palin pardoning a turkey; a minor Thanksgiving ritual done by essentially all governors and presidents. Then she gave a short interview, apparently without realizing what else was in the camera viewfinder. During the video filming of the interview, workers in the background continued with the job at hand at a turkey farm shortly before Thanksgiving [duh]: butchering turkeys.

That is not a huge hook to build a story on ... and yet, it is currently (and has been for several days!) the number one story accessed through Huffington Post (and presumably near the top in interest of current news stories period!) At Huffington the story and video has 673,582 views and 5,416 comments. This blows all the "competition" out of the water. Not only the "real" and "serious" news stories ... but it even makes the silly "Obamas Expected to Have Sex In White House" story seem to be boring [91,912 views, 222 comments]! (The Obama article is actually hilarious ... especially the comments from people who don't understand that it is satire! But it is only 1/7th as popular as a boring interview of Palin at a turkey farm!)

I am beginning to understand that people (and cameras and media types) are addicted to all things Palin. But the video of a turkey pardon? Arianna [Huffington] even mentions it in her little front page editorial squib telling people to make sure not to miss it! And the comments are (largely) insanely obnoxious. Many of them call for Palin to please just go away and shut up. Ya know, if they wouldn't keep a' clicking on any news story about her and adding comments ... presumably she would! There were 49 other state Governors and a sitting U.S. President that (probably) all did the same traditional "turkey pardon". Yet not one, other than Sarah's, made the YouTube best-seller list. If people don't want to hear Sarah Palin then they should [get your crayons out so you can take notes] "stop listening"! Clearly, the turkeys weren't all behind Sarah.

"Help! Save me from myself! Stop showing news stories about Palin because I can't keep myself from watching them!" Even atrociously stupid ones like this.

Headline news: the turkey you eat for Thanksgiving was killed before you cooked it. I know this is a shock! [Well, unless it is a PETA tofu turkey :-) Are there such things? Actually, I'm sure there are given the rampant
idiocy that a rich free society engenders. Don't they have any sympathy for the poor tofus they keep killing? Heartless I tell you. We should start a "SAVE THE TOFU" campaign! We could run some video clips of masked ninja types sneaking up on baby tofus and smashing them with clubs until they die a slow and painful death!]

I just checked. It isn't just a bad joke (the tofu turkeys, not the baby tofu killers - that is a bad joke :-). But they really do make tofu "turkey". [Sigh.] It's called Tofurkey and PETA even has a website full of "oh so yummy" Thanksgiving recipes! Saints preserve us!

Doesn't anyone know that tofu is curdled, coagulated soy beans??? It is a perfectly reasonable thing to eat ... if you are starving and lost in the desert and there is nothing potentially edible for hundreds of miles ... and you've already eaten your belt. Under any other conditions it is pathetic. But I digress :-)

I think it is all ... Reagan's (?) fault. I can't remember if he was Governor of California when they decided to close down all the "establishments for the sanity deprived" [this is California we're talking about after all :-)] and send the crazy people out into the streets. This caused such things as sidewalk congestion on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley and PETA.

Granted, Palin isn't as "ewwee" squeamish as this patriarchal society likes its women to be. [Grow up America!] Sorry, I, and probably most Alaskans, have difficulties with such elitist machismo - on the frontier a woman has value, she isn't just considered to be decoration.] Sarah kills and butchers moose and other animals. She commercially fishes and tromps around in boats full of dead and dying salmon.

[By strange coincidence one of the big positives for me about Hillary, (personally, not politically) was that she wasn't the squeamish type either. She worked a "slime line" in Alaska when she was younger ... which consists of butchering salmon, some of which aren't quite dead, as they come past you at the salmon cannery on a conveyor belt.] Hillary noted that, armed with a rain coat, hip boots and a knife, the slime line job "was the best preparation ever for working in Washington"! But that's only because she has never field dressed a moose! :-)

So, sure, maybe some more "girlie" governor would have been grossed out. I suppose Sarah could take pointers and learn. Given that she learned to tear down, clean and reassemble a rifle in only a few minutes I'm sure she could manage this. But if you've butchered a moose, the idea that seeing a turkey "prepared" for the Thanksgiving table is objectionable is just silly. As is the reaction by all those who are grossed out by it (but can't keep themselves from watching it while ranting about it!)

I realize that there are turkeys involved here all right. I just can't decide who all they are.

But ~675,000 views just through Huffington of a turkey pardon? I'd say we probably could find at least a half a million of them in that viewer group.

All that attention. And it was probably the least important thing Sarah did that day! Pu-leese people! Get a life!

A "Con"stitutional Question

November 16, 2008
A "Con" stitutional Question

Ok. We've had our election. The national media gave Obama his Rolls Royce ride to the white house. The people" (represented by a much larger percentage of street people bussed to the polls in the weeks before and during election day than had ever been seen in the past :-) have made him the "President-elect". (Republicans have little ability to counter this new form of electioneering except to work to stop all the early voting and make absentee voting much more difficult. It wouldn't stop the election day busing, but it would put an end to the huge numbers that get dragged to the polls in the weeks preceding an election. This is the Republicans only real solution since there are probably very few street people who would vote Republican unless for a specific quid pro quo and Republicans tend to get squeamish about outright vote buying.)

Being president-elect, however, is not a long term position. It is supposed to come to an end, according to the Constitution, on January 20 of the year following the election. But we have over two months left before the scheduled occasion.

So what happens if Obama is disqualified from holding the office before that date arrives? And, even more interestingly, what if the courts were to so determine after he is sworn in as President? I doubt that it will happen but this election has been so strange that nothing would surprise me. I think most people believe it is too late. All those lawsuits challenging his standing to be the U.S. President are generally thought to have gone "poof" with his election. But they didn't.

Interestingly the lawsuits have not been dismissed as frivolous either, which is the common response to the wing-nut lawsuits that pop up virtually unnoticed at other elections. In fact, despite the best attempts by the media to ignore them, the lawsuits have a pesky way of showing up and are not proving susceptible to being swept under the rug. I don't know if it is true or not since it is just an unverified comment, but at least someone apparently counted and says there are 17 cases in the Federal courts on this issue, two of which are currently before the Supreme Court. I assume there are "a bunch" in state courts as well seeking to stop certifications or whatever in the individual states.

Nor are these all nut-case lawsuits. Everyone has heard of the Phillip Berg lawsuit. It has been fairly well scoffed off the table by the mainstream media suggesting just that ... that it is just another nut-case action. Part of the problem with that argument is that Phillip Berg isn't your typical nut-case. Indeed he is the former Deputy Attorney General for Pennsylvania.

Although that is probably the most famous of the cases, perhaps the most fascinating and compelling case is the case brought in California by, among others, Ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes. Dr. Keyes (a PhD from Harvard is not one to be brushed off easily. He also overcomes the big problem that Phillip Berg has with his case is that the court is questioning his "standing" to bring the action. I think the court is hopelessly wrong on that. Any citizen of the United States has standing to bring a lawsuit alleging that a presidential candidate (or president-elect) does not qualify for the office.

However that is ultimately decided, Dr. Keyes does not face that problem. Perhaps fortuitously, he was on the ballot in California as a candidate for President running as the nominee of the American Independent Party. It would be difficult to imagine who would have standing if a citizen of the country who was competing with Obama for the election as President, does not.

You would think that Obama would stop trying to win all these law suits on procedural grounds and just wipe them out on the merits ... if indeed he is right on the merits. All he has to do is wipe out the "vault birth certificate" (the real one ... the kind you probably have to show to get a driver's license! Not that phony certificate of live birth that the experts are split on but that appears there is a good chance it is a forgery).

I have a hunch that Obama may not even have known where he was born until questions came up about it! It isn't like he remembers it. And things were such a whirlwind he probably didn't even take it all seriously when it started. But the wheels of justice grind slowly ... but they do grind away. But even though it isn't the kind of thing one is likely to remember, ignorance absolutely is no excuse.

I can see it, though. His Mom (who was a bit of a wild card anyway) wanted him to have U.S. citizenship as a "born in the U.S.A. type, not as a "naturalized by moving here so young" type, so claimed he was born in Hawaii and told him that. His Grandmother said he was born in Kenya. She certainly had nothing to gain by saying that. Only the vaulted certificate knows for sure. And by now, probably Obama. Or he would have produced it. He was recently in Hawaii for his Grandmother's funeral [no, I'm not enough of a wing-nut to go there :-)]. But I bet he checked the certificate while there. And instead of producing it as he has been court ordered to do and which would make all the lawsuits go "poof" ... he fights them on procedural grounds and keeps the birth certificate in the vault.

But the "no standing" argument presumably won't work against Dr. Keyes. Nor will the screams of racism by his proxies. The fact that Dr. Keyes is a nationally syndicated columnist and a black man who stands about 6' 7" adds a bit to the drama. He has also held substantive governmental positions, particularly in the Reagan administration. And he was on the ballot for President in California.

The interesting question really is whether the issue gets decided before or after January 20. He can't very well pardon himself if he is not the real president (which he wouldn't be if he was not constitutionally qualified to hold the office). He would be, in the words of the Keyes' suit ... a usurper to the office. I don't know what the punishments are. Is it treason? Would the U.S. be after him just as all the Islamic world will be because he is an apostate?

He is forming an army to answer solely to him ... do you suppose he'll put up resistance if the courts order him to get the *%&#$)% out of the President's chair? :-)

But here's the thing. I don't know if Keyes or Berg has thought through. Clearly, if he is found to be ineligible before being sworn in, he gets booted. The Constitution is clear on that. But what if it doesn't happen until after he is seated? Would Pelosi become VP?! :-) Nah. Even the Forefathers would have thought far enough ahead to save us from that! Presumably it would be the same result.

However ... I'm still not certain that Keyes and Berg and the others have thought this through sufficiently! Obama could take his platform and run comfortably in the Socialist party of most countries of Europe. But behind the rhetoric he has shown some surprisingly conservative thoughts. And there is nothing like "real life" to make one more conservative!

He is an unknown. Usually that is bad. Except this time we know who his replacement would be: Joe "no longer Biden his time". And we do know his record. I'm not so sure but what I'd rather take my chances with the unknown!

Commander Palin

October 18, 2008
Commander Palin

I know we were talking about Obama, but I ran into a post elsewhere that irritated me so I'm doing a quick "response" for those who might be confused enough by the blather to believe the idiot (I'm sorry ... but that poster is an idiot, not just uninformed like many).

The post denigrated both Palin and Alaska's National Guard (and her relationship and responsibilities regarding it). So let me get some facts out there for those who are legitimately uninformed (given the news media "misinformed" may be more common), but in either case please be aware of the following:

Alaska's National Guard is the elite Guard force in the country and the elite of the elites of all arctic fighting forces and is universally considered to be so among those who know about such things. The U.S. Marines (as well as the Army) send their troops up to be trained by and to learn from our National Guard.

America's first line of missile interceptor defense (protecting the entire U.S.) is the 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard and Sarah Palin, as Governor of Alaska, is the Commander in Chief of that Defense Battalion.

As such, she is (and was long before any veep candidacy was even considered) routinely briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counter terrorism by the federal "powers that be". It is an entirely different situation from any other state governor because in most states the national guard is a sort of minor afterthought. In Alaska, it is a big thing and a major part of America's defense system.

In fact, Sarah has a higher classified security rating than EITHER Obama or Biden! She is already entrusted with more national security information than either of them are allowed! (In fact, I have wondered a bit at some of her early apparent "airheadedness" in interviews regarding the international situation and national defense ... and I've come to believe that she was really unsure at first what, if anything, she was allowed to say.) I assume that got cleared up as she has since shown she can certainly hold her own in that arena (even with an acknowledged foreign affairs expert like Biden during her debate with him). She has been taught to keep a secret and she does so. If it is one she is sworn to uphold (such as regarding national security or foreign affairs) she, as a matter of character, would rather be viewed as an airhead than to reveal anything that she shouldn't.

As a result, I think she simply clammed up and accepted looking dumb until she was definitively briefed on where that line was. (If you recall, she was the last of the four candidates to be briefed because she was the last announced and had not gone through the formal security briefing that the candidates all receive at the time of those early interviews ... and she already knew stuff that they couldn't and therefore didn't tell Obama or Biden because of her clearance level. So, I think she simply had not had a chance to get a definitive determination on what she could and could not reveal at that point ... she was thrown into this thing in such a surprise whirlwind that there probably just hadn't been a chance for it before the press got their hands on her.) This paragraph is conjecture. The others are not.

This one is not conjecture either: she met with McCain in February (!) ... and no one ever knew about it (except the tiny handful of people involved). This is a lady that can keep a secret! (In fact ... only tangentially related, but remember how long she kept her recent pregnancy a secret!) She can be trusted with our national security secrets. And, indeed, she already is.

I found it interesting that in his interview regarding her, Major General Craig E. Campbell who was the Major General and head of the Alaska National Guard (and therefore reported to Palin), noted that Palin had ordered troops and helicopters to Louisiana to help with the hurricane damage just the week before the interview. She didn't check with any federal agency or ... anyone. She received a request for help from the Governor of Louisiana and she deployed our troops and 'copters to help out. Even from here we probably got there and did more good more quickly than the federal folks! [You really should see the interview ... he says much more, and says it much more eloquently than I ... as he knows a lot more about it than I.]

But the Major General reported to Palin, not to the President or anyone else. Until and unless the Guard is nationalized (which happens on occasion - eg: our troops in Iraq), she is the sole Commander in Chief. And she was (is) an active and involved one ... even visiting our (Alaska's) National Guard troops in Kuwait long before anyone had considered her for the veep seat.

Those people who claim that her assertion that being Commander of the Alaska National Guard aided her foreign policy knowledge and experience is fluffery and that she was a "Commander" in name only; that it didn't mean anything substantive ... are either uninformed, misinformed, or intentionally misinforming.

She still knows things about our national security that Obama (and Biden) do not, and are not allowed to know!

Thank you for letting me clear the air on that. I feel better now :-)

"Ditz with Tits" - Not!

October 4, 2008

"Ditz with Tits" - Not!
Ok. It wasn’t perfect. And it wasn’t her greatest debate performance ever. But at least, to a much larger extent than since the Convention, the real Sarah Palin showed up. Alaskans don’t have to cringe that the world thinks we were nuts for electing her as our Governor. Love her or hate her, she is our representative to the world at the moment and we are a state that could use some positive representation.

Frankly, prior to Sarah’s surprise selection by McCain, we were best known for 1) the Bridge to Nowhere; 2) Ted Stevens’s indictment and the suggestion that he was the tip of the iceberg of Alaska’s corrupt government; and 3) the impression that the state is filthy rich with oily wealth which contributes to the price at the pumps for the rest of the country.

In other words ... the last thing we needed was to also be made a laughingstock by our Governor’s inability to utter a coherent sentence. Fortunately ... she did ok.

Yeah, she muffed some lines, got a name or two wrong [but did extremely well with names that Biden and McCain can barely sputter out (but Obama prounounces perhaps a bit too flawlessly :-) - "Ahmadinejad" comes to mind -, but (to Joe 6-pack ... and even a lot of the "elite") she never looked like she was out of her league. She took everything her threw at her, added little personal details ("when I spoke with him last week") demonstrating that she finally is meeting some of the movers and shakers in the world ... and mailed it back to Joe; first class, special delivery!

If you are an Obaman fan ... be afraid. Be very afraid. You have not seen Sarah at anything close to her best (unless you watched the Convention. She was in her element there ... but that was her first time with an audience larger than a few thousand. Imagine what this woman is going to be like when she gets comfortable)!

She also overcame what was clearly one of Biden's best performances in 36 years. He made no major gaffes and he was careful to stay on topic and on time. A very un-Biden-like performance :-) But (!) Sarah took the absolute best that this 36 year legislative veteran had and debated him to ... at least a draw. After 5 weeks of having any reason to pay any more attention to world affairs than you or me (meaning some ... we try to keep informed ... yeah, the surge apparently worked after all ... but with busy lives, all we can manage is surface impressions). Doubtless the same was true for her 5 weeks ago. Give her just a little bit of time and experience and she's going to kick ... uh, in Sarah speak ... some unruly bottoms!

So people can debate the debate. Poll numbers will rise and fall and fall and rise. I still don't think we are going to lose our Governor ... at least to the vice presidency. She may end up with Steven's seat in the Senate depending on how things break and whether he gets re-elected before he gets convicted. [Rather IF he gets convicted! The prosecution is doing a totally pathetic job. When the judge hauls you into chambers with the jury sitting in the jury box and reams you for half an hour ... it is a safe assumption you screwed up. Plus the judge came within a cat's whisker of calling a mistrial. This means that Steven's lawyers have excellent grounds for an appeal. I could (and maybe should) do an entire column on this trial!]

But whatever the final verdict on Sarah's performance tonight. Win, lose, or draw ... she won. Hands down. She had to do what she did. And she did it very, very well. Biden just had to keep from screwing up too badly, but he did well also.

Whatever the future brings ... Sarah Palin is now part of the national lexicon. Part of the national landscape. She and Ferraro (and to a large extent Hillary) are going to be the ones that are remembered for putting all those cracks in the glass ceiling. Despite the fact that the Women's Movement (which sounds like something that should be done in a bathroom) can't stand her ... she will take her place on the pantheon of women's progress. Or ... she might bust the ceiling all to pieces and be the first female vice president!

But what she won't be (to this columnist's great relief), by any stretch of the imagination, is another Dan Quayle.

For that, Alaskans can be rightly proud.

The Envelope Please ...

October 2, 2008

The Envelope Please ...
Ah the punditocracy [which includes the mainstream media and their extension, the major (mostly east coast) blogosphere: those linked and cited blogs that have just become an arm of the mainstream media without the need to follow any journalistic rules. In order to get those precious links which translates into site traffic and advertising income, they bought into the system] Doncha just love 'em? [A "no" answer is acceptable. That wasn't necessarily a rhetorical question :-)]

It is the general claim of the media that the result of tonight’s debate will be a Biden win or an unmitigated disaster for the country [otherwise known as "Sarah rocked"].


This is the most important VP debate in history and will likely have the largest audience of any debate. [At least it should whomp the 56.7 million who tuned into watch the last male/female tango: George Bush the Elder and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.] Indeed it is estimated that 2/3 of voters may tune in tonight! Geraldine. Yeah, her. Remember the icon of the Women's Movement? She thought Charlie Gibson was sexist and did a hatchet job on Palin and that Palin did a good job on the interview. Suddenly, despite being the heroine of broken glass ceilings and a Democrat to boot ... she is a pariah in the Women's Movement. How dare she think Palin was treated poorly and that Gibson was sexist!?! That is not politically correct in the left-wing circles which have hijacked the Women's Movement. Unbelievable! They turned on Ferraro (!) who was clearly one of their own (but with vastly more relevant experience) yet someone who dared to speak her own mind! How utterly and childishly fickle! Listen up oh ye who autocratically rule the Women's Movement with an iron spiked high-heel (or are only flats allowed?) ... women are capable of thinking for themselves, they don't need you to tell them how to think! And they are allowed to have their own opinions! Why does it so often seem that the most sexist groups in the country are the ... well, let's just say that NOW was THEN. I think more highly of women than they do. If she wasn't so high profile that they don't dare, I think they'd have turned on Hillary also.

Back to the subject! So how will it go? Will Sarah reprise her role as empty headed ditz trying desperately to remember a memorized sound bite that McCain's handlers have told he is the only thing allowed out of her mouth? Or will she charm America while Biden says some really dumb things as he wanders off topic?

The national media has absolutely no clue. They are generally judging by the interviews she has given and seem therefore to share a "Sarah is going to be so embarrassed" hidden giggle.

Well, I've got news for them. Yep. One little blog in Alaska has news for all the giant media news outlets in the country: Sarah Palin is an awesome debater!

Now she is also, in the past, been a great interviewee and similarly she may have left her debate skills in Alaska. Or, again, McCain's people may have sliced her hamstrings.

But if they turn her loose ... watch out Joe.

She absolutely tromped highly experienced Harvard educated extremely well-spoken opponents in Alaska.

She is fortunate. There will be a studio audience at Washington U. tonight. Sarah has an uncanny ability to connect with an audience (assuming the klieg lights don't completely blind her :-). But even if they do ... she will "feel" the audience. She will grasp the mood, the rhythm. If she gets her timing working it doesn't matter what she says ... she will have the studio audience eating out of her hand and the television audience will pick up the same vibes.

In 2006 when she ran for Governor she debated a bunch of folks including a legislator by the name of Andrew Halco. He had studied at Harvard Business School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He was an accomplished orator and legislator. He debated Palin several times. Even once he understood all of her strategies and tactics ... she still left him in a pool of melt-down after each debate. It was uncanny. He knew the facts. He knew the issues. He had real numbers instead of theoretical fuzzies. Palin remarked during one debate that in her administration, he would be an "awesome statistician". So much for facts and numbers. That was suddenly a low-level position for which you hire people.

In retrospect, Halcro says: "I don't think anyone could have beat her. It wasn't about how much she knew about the issues. People didn't care about her experience, they just thought, 'This is the drink of water we need'."

Tune in, turn on (the TV), and drop everything else. Because this is the show of the year!

Tonight we see how thirsty the American public is.