Sarah Barracuda: Ready on October 2nd

Republican hopeful John McCain, flushed with excitement from the agonies of Mile High Stadium in Denver, has just dumped his Number Two on unsuspecting American voters everywhere, first term Republican governor of Alaska, pro-life journalist and runnerup in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant, Sarah Palin, spelled B-A-R-R-A-C-U-D-A, what a relief!

You thought Ferraro, right? Or Dan Quayle? Wise up. This cookie is tough. She was picked for one reason, and one reason only — to sandbag^† Joe Biden in the first and only Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis on October 2.

^†A technical term. Technically, it means "can't get a word in edgewise," as practised by the standard female Republican motormouth who fills all the time available for a response to moderator's question, from now to commercial break, with non-stop talkover, presuming that elderly male Democrats are well brought up and would never ever interrupt a woman not that it matters^‡....

The first time I saw this tactic answered correctly was a few years ago on CNN, when Patricia Schroeder returned fire on a GOP shrill the entire world has thankfully forgotten.

I give McCain credit for military tactics. He saw a weakness in Biden long ago, maybe a tendency to get rattled when debating women, and now he's going to hit him with sexual politics. Sarah Barracuda is no Geraldine Ferraro, and Gwen Ifill had better be on her game!

^‡McCain Steam claims "foreign policy experience" for Palin because, and I'm not making this up, "Alaska is next to Russia." Unfortunately, considering the average American's grip on geography, that's good enuff.