But Enough About Me.

As I said, I think Sarah Palin won the debate last night. I'd leave it at that, but since I've lost all my conservative readers I don't feel the need to shelter their hypersensitivities any more. And some people are a little more concerned with substance than I am.

Sean at FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.COM liveblogged: It seems the meta thru-line of Governor Palin's performance tonight is that we need change from the folks who've been in Washington for a long time. That can't be a good thematic element. (Arguably, Biden said the same, but he didn't keep hammering it home so much, which means it's harder to pin on him.)

Courtesy THINK PROGRESS: On MSNBC, Pat Buchanan is quite vehemently insisting that Palin “wiped the floor” with Joe Biden whom he described as “boring.” Rachel Maddow tried to press Buchanan on whether Palin’s various factual errors were relevant, but Buchanan dismissed these concerns as “picayune.” This is important. I think most people who say Palin came out ahead last night are basing the judgement on the same likability criteria. If that matters. But again from fivethirtyeight maybe people aren't as shallow as they used to be: Biden won the CBS poll of undecideds 46-21, and the CNN poll of debate watchers 51-36. Independents in the large MediaCurves focus group panel went for Biden about 2:1.

Also from TP - 9:44: Palin just said that the plan that Obama, Maliki, and President Bush currently supports is “a white flag of surrender.”

ABC News pointed out that Palin's assertion that we are back down to pre-surge troop levels is incorrect. Iraq troop levels before the surge were at 133,500. While U.S. troop levels in Iraq have been in the 142,000 range recently, today they are at around 150,000 because of an ongoing troop rotation.

Also, Palin seems totally behind the Dick Cheney idea that the Vice President's office is some super-legislative entitity that runs all branches of government. I'm more traditional on this one: it's a limited role until the President either dies from a heart attack or is killed by panicked white supremacists. God Forbid in either case.

By the way, is it my imagination or was Sarah smiling a little too broadly when she addressed that subject?

De Bate! Dee Bate!

Tonight is the big VP debate, between Palin and Biden. It doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter. And yet I'm probably going to watch, not because it will influence my vote and not even because I could pick up a few talking points. I'm going to watch out of pure, white-hot schaudenfreude.

I'd predict that the affair will be a train wreck, but since there was a real train wreck right near me last month I'm trying to avoid that metaphor.

So what are the fun things to look for tonight in the contest between the woman who is afraid to speak and the man who can't shut up? You could enjoy a drinking game. One commenter suggests-

Palin: Reform

Biden: Look

- although Ana Marie Cox wants to take a shot any time Palin says "you know" which means she should be out within 12 minutes.

Then there is the Gwen Ifill controversey. You can look at it as a legitimate concern about bias or as an attempt to make excuses in advance, but the blogosphere is raising issues about Ifill's upcoming book, which is about African-American political figures. My conclusion? Ifill is totally in the tank for Colin Powell. (Hey, maybe she'll throw out a question about the "Powell Doctrine!" Fun!) The drive to get Ifill replaced with someone unbiased like (seriously) Britt Hume is counterproductive. For one thing, it reinforces the idea that Palin isn't ready; for another, both candidates have been training for weeks with a Gwen Ifill stand-in. Palin litererally wouldn't be ready.

By the way, McCain was okay with the Ifill choice yesterday, and a little queasy about it this morning.

Biden could roll with it - if you want to talk about lowered expectations, nobody is really watching the debate to see Biden say something stupid. It would be like watching the sun to see if it sets in the east. And no matter who is asking the questions, he has years of experience delivering non-answers to them.

In fact, this last point is why the debate (all debates, actually) will untimately be so squirm-inducing. No politician is stupid enough to answer a question honestly, and the best ones are so smart that they can answer a question while literally saying nothing. So tonight ingore substance. Won't be none! Watch to see who appears more nervous. The other one wins.