With the Vice Presidential debate only a few days away, and the public infatuation with Palin seemingly gone, are those of us who are gleefully sure of a Palin meltdown setting ourselves up for a nasty surprise?
I've been as guilty as anyone in feeling a perverse pleasure each and every time Palin has stumbled in the past few weeks. The woman both offends me and terrifies me, not by her own merits or lack thereof, but more by what this situation says about our society. Because of this, I've been thrilled to see her absolutely destroyed on Saturday Night Live - the most recent skit using her own words. The jokes literally write themselves.
But now we've lowered the bar - arguably lower than it ever has been in a debate of this magnitude. She doesn't have to hit it out of the park (like McCain needed to last week); she just has to muddle through without any major gaffes. She knows how to win debates. She won several of them on her way to being elected in Alaska. The downside to her recent interviews is that Biden now has an incredibly delicate task in debating her. If he attacks too strongly, he's a bully. If he takes it easy on her, he's condescending and sexist. She couldn't have the deck stacked any more heavily in her favor.
The other side of the coin here is that many people have already decided that she is a disaster and an embarrassment. Even republicans are starting to see her as a liability rather than an asset. Her performance will be scrutinized to a tremendous degree and any flaws will be the story. That is, unless Biden out-gaffes her. This debate, perhaps more so than any other to date, will be a contest to see who embarrasses themselves the least.