Paging Dr. Orville Reddenbacher

We need you on the snack shelf, stat.

Tonight's the night,
Everything's all right
(apologies to Rod Stewart)

It's on, and by gawd, it better be entertaining.



Relax. I got this.

I'll say this much - if Palin's wearing her hair down tonight (by all accounts, a seemingly rare occurence), I hope Gwen Ifill asks her why she's wearing a wire in her ear.

Seriously, can there be a more compliant, yet less talented, marionette than Sarah "Putin's Rearin' His Head" Palin? When Joe Public (as opposed to VP candidate "Joe Six Pack") asks a question at a sandwich shop, that's "gotcha journalism", but when asked what should be an utter softball question by a generally softie journalist, you can't name ONE Supreme Court decision you disagree with, despite your oft-spouting of standard right wing talking point rhetoric "activist liberal judges"? You can't cite one example of such a decision? Not one? You can't cite a decision that only three months before cost YOUR state hundreds of millions of dollars? I mean hell, you read ALL the newspapers, right? You'd think at least one might mention a Supreme Court opinion you disagree with, no?

Seriously, Palin's made Dubya and Dan Quayle look like beatified geniuses in comparison. I'm convinced that the only plan in the Republican Party's platform is the dumbing down of America staring from the top down, where the plan is to put forth the absolute middle of the bell curve as your best.

But I digress; tonight should be a lot of fun, and Dr. Reddenbacher better be working overtime, because this one calls for lots of snacks. Trainwrecks make a mondo hungry.

In the end, I doubt the debate this evening will do much to shape the race at all, in either direction. For one thing, it's #2 vs #2, and who. does. number 2. work. for? More to the point, Palin has performed so poorly in virtually every instance of public speech during this campaign that was not a straight teleprompter read, that enough voters have now concluded she is completely and utterly unqualified for national office, that she's not going to suddenly reverse everyone's opinion solely on the basis of a single performance of relative competence. She needs to pretty much hit a home run, and simply avoiding fouling the ball off your own face isn't a round-tripper.

Honestly, I don't think Palin could even win re-election as Governor in the state just off Putin's front porch right now. But please, just be entertaining for one night, and don't make Orville's overtime work go to waste.