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Now, I'm just sayin'...

In all seriousness, though, as much of a blithering idiot Sarah Palin appears to be, I feel surprisingly conflicted about the VP debate. And I acknowledge it's for the most unlikely and seemingly ridiculous reason: it's too good to be true. There's a tiny person in my head, way in the back, wringing his hands, unblinking, staring into the distance, rocking back and forth on a short stool, paranoid and muttering to himself. "What if she's sandbagging? What if, in the greatest, most deceptive long con in American political history, the McCain campaign got her to play dumb from her inception? They knew they'd be in for a tough, tough race. What if she's been deliberately spouting the lines of a bumbling airhead to Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric, and in the greatest ambush we've ever witnessed will wow us all with her grasp of facts and figures in the debate?"

Now, I know that's garbage. But I also know that the bar has been set so low for Palin's performance that unless she collapses in a weeping heap behind her podium, pounding the floor and cursing the Lord, she can't do worse than a "draw".

The truth is Palin is a very able debater, as she has demonstrated in past elections. While she may not have a great command of the facts (to put it nicely), when she is prepared, she is the master of the non-answer. Look for her to come to tomorrow's debate with a high energy level, a sickeningly sappy, can-do demeanor right out of Disney central casting, glittering generalities, subtle, pithy insults, and lots and lots of bullshit. In other words, she will have all the tools she needs to endear herself once again to the American public. Whether she pulls it off - leaving the media fawning over her canned answers and her folksy, just-like-me delivery - is another question. Just be aware: she's done it before.

(Full disclosure, chips on the table: I believe she will fail. There will be spin on both sides, and the consensus will be that she didn't LOSE lose. However, the damage is done. Enough of the people to whom she appealed at the time of her announcement as VP candidate have enough serious doubt about her that she will not recover all of their trust. The debate will be a footnote in the campaign, doing nothing to fundamentally alter the state of the race.)

I'm just sayin'...