Yeah, it kind of terrifies me too. What also bothers me is the knowledge that because she's the first woman to be on the Republican ticket, many people are over-reacting to negative comments about her by saying the commenter is "anti-woman", sexist, unfair, or whatever. In my opinion Biden has a tough task ahead: he needs to fluster Palin enough to reveal just how under-qualified she is, without coming across as an aggressive jerk and pissing people off. I think if he's as aggressive as McCain was during the Pres. debate (which wasn't THAT aggressive), it will be a problem. He's going to have trouble with that, I'm afraid...

Well I disagree because Biden says something like "When the stock market crashed, FDR came on the TV and told families everything would be okay" and first of all, FDR was not president, and secondly, close to zero families even owned TVs. Hoover came on the radio. And yet he wasn't crucified for that... people just laughed.

However, I do not think that Katie Couric was sexist or even that she delivered "gotcha" questions. I thought she was pretty fair.

oops! biden said fdr was on tv.

oops! palin's response to the bailout question rambled on and on but had no substance, did not show an understanding of what the bailout proposed, did not voice an understanding of the risks and benefits of the bailout, and made no sense grammatically. and as putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the united states of america, where do they go? it's alaska.

Biden says dumb stuff. It's been his MO for over 20 years. It's essentially the major character flaw he's known for. (FWIW, Jon Stewart did ridicule the FDR bit extensively. I'll bet he's salivating for Thursday's debate, along with the entire writing staff of SNL.) Palin's major known character flaw isn't that she says dumb stuff; I'll bet that wouldn't be on the top 5 list of Alaskans. So when she gets to national TV and says dumb stuff, people sit up and pay attention. It's really a matter of exposure: we know that Senator Biden says dumb stuff but is essentially a smart person (regardless of whether you agree with him or not). We don't know enough about Governor Palin.

i am definitely interested to see how both of the vp candidates do in the debate- what they say and how they present themselves.

what it\'s like to debate sarah palin - an article from the christian science monitor (not my usual reading). the guy who wrote it debated palin in alaska, and commented on her ability to connect with audiences and tell folksy stories without answering the question posed to her. i'm betting that she will use that ability if she doesn't have an answer to a particular question. i just wonder how hard the moderator is going to push her to give an answer, and how biden will call her out on her mistakes.

some have said that palin has come across as more unknowledgable rather than unintelligent. if it's a knowledge deficit, then she has had some time to study and brush up on her party's positions on issues of domestic and foreign policy.

Can't we have an intelligent discussion without the sarcasm?? I'm sure I've been guilty of it, too, but I'd like to eliminate it.

We'll see what happens at the debate. But I think the reason people say she was being admonished by sexists (even Obama's campaign said the media was acting sexist) is because they ridiculed her and said she couldn't be a mother and a VP, even though men have been doing it for hundreds of years. They should have ONLY focused on her credentials, policies and abilities, not her personal life. As far as Katie Couric's interview... no sexism. But this is all really beside the point. I'm looking forward to the debate as well.

just pointing out there are big, big differences between biden's misstep and palin's misadventure.

Coming from someone on the fence - One question to ask ourselves....

WHY did McCain chose Palin as his running mate ? Did he actually think that she was the most qualified republican to possibly run the most powerful nation in the world ?

I believe he did it because he wanted us to do exactly what we are doing. Get to talking about the republican party. Pay attention to them. The republicans were so far out in the race that McCain had to do something drastic, like bring in an outsider to Washington who also happens to be a woman - just to get everyone talking. He trusted that the public will fall for that strategy and guess what - we did. We are talking now, aren't we ?

That to me is cheap political play. Bring on a real candidate to talk about real issues and THEN, we will see who is the better person for the job...

So tell me - WHY Palin ? Please don't answer the question as WHY NOT, but WHY ?