Palin sends Pat Buchanan and Fox News into ecstasy spasms

It is clear, and it explains a lot, that Republicans don't care one wit about intelligence or truth. All they care about is labels, winks and jibes, whatever sells their product. Miss Congeniality rose to the occasion last night. She rattled off her memorized talking points very passionately in appropriate places and when she couldn't figure out the question or didn't know the answer she just switched to a different soundtrack.

Palin's folksy attitude may dazzle the Republicans who like their women to be cute as blank slates, like Laura, Babs, and Cindy McCain, but I couldn't help but always substitute Putin for Biden. Haven't we had enough of a president who can only read scripts? Palin kept suggesting Biden get amnesia, so he couldn't point to the failed policies George Bush and John McCain have been supporting for years. A clever trick, but the American people won't soon forget and don't want to forget what a shafting they got under the Bush administration's last eight years.

The conservative Republicans can enjoy the moment of bliss they felt over a non-collapse of their VP candidate, but there is no way that the answers she gave were better than Biden's answers. Her answers were informed more by a sense of timing and showbiz, than by political smarts.

This debate on a political level was a non-event. On a personal level, it was a boost for Palin who had recently been making a terrible fool of herself.