Tonight is Sarah Palin's chance to show the world she's ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. After all she's Joe six-pack! Whatever that means. So
here's some things Katharine Q. Seelye from The New York Times wants you to keep in mind while watching Sarah Palin's debate meltdown tonight.
Polls show that an increasing number of people think she is not qualified to be vice president. Will she try to counteract that impression by just keeping her head down, or will she try something dramatic? Will she go after Mr. Biden, or wait to see if he goes after her first? Something dramatic is probably a clue that Senator John McCain, who named Ms. Palin as his running mate a month ago, thinks he’s in trouble.
If she blunders, she won’t necessarily sink the ticket’s chances in November, but it sure would reinforce the story line that he exercised bad judgment by picking her in the first place.
Her level of preparation should be evident early on. Watch to see whether she can answer questions with a specificity that has so far eluded her in TV interviews.
I have to disagree. If she loses, McCain loses. If she wins, McCain could still lose. Dan Quayle came back from a humiliating thrashing by
Senator Lloyd Bentsen and actually became vice-president but his political fate was sealed as an empty-suited loser.
Ms. Palin has been referring to herself lately as Joe Six Pack. This is an attempt to cast Mr. Biden as a creature of Washington and lay the groundwork for her to deflect policy questions — she may not know how to fix the nation’s financial system but she knows the price of diapers and gasoline. Watch for her to emphasize that she understands the needs of people like you.
It doesn't take an Einstein to argue that Joe Biden is a creature of Washington. McCain is too. In fact, when you compare Biden to McCain, the democratic nominee for vice-president has more experience than the republican nominee for president. Palin has no idea what the needs are of ordinary Americans. And as I pointed out yesterday, Palin is a state governor and not an ordinary citizen. I predict a win for Biden and in about a month the residents of Alaska will have their governor back.