Showdown in the Shithole: Who won?

I'm in even worse shape now than I was when I blogged re: the first presidential debate. Not only am I umpteen beers deep, but I've also been to White Castle.

So we'll see what happens.

Basically, I was disappointed with tonight's debate. Not only was it not as hilarious as Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric, in which she couldn't name a newspaper that she reads, or a Supreme Court decision other than Roe vs. Wade, but Joe Biden couldn't really wipe the floor with her the way he should have.

The problem was twofold.

First of all, it's not like Gwen Ifill was gonna ask Sarah Palin anything that was gonna cause her to have to prove that she knows anything about... like, anything. How come they couldn't have thrown in a few questions Sarah Palin obviously didn't know the answer to? Is it because Gwen Ifill was afraid she would be viewed as biased in favor of Obama, since she's got a book-length love letter to him coming out next month?

I guess it doesn't really matter that much when it comes down to it. The key is that she didn't.

Sarah Palin, for her part, didn't do a very good job of answering hardly any question raised during this debate. But she did seem to have a knack for answering questions in a way that wasn't particularly competent, and yet was still somewhat satisfactory. Couple that with the fact that I'd still hit it, and you've got a case that this was a W for her.

Which wouldn't have even been an issue, if Obama and Biden provided more of a stark contrast to her in terms of the issues. And that, as far as I'm concerned, is the real tragedy here. If Obama and Biden actually had a message, Palin probably would have dropped out of the race before this debate even happened. She wouldn't have had a chance.