That debate

As you may have noticed, the omnipresence of religious extremist pop cultural sensation Sarah Palin has been really getting to me.

I was watching the debate early Friday morning and contributing to the comments thread in Oliver Burkeman's liveblog.We were playing Palin Bingo. Hells bells, anyone who had the word 'maverick' on their card had a shocking headache yesterday.

For an ex-TV presenter, small-town mayor and recently-appointed governor of an Arctic state, who'd been suddenly swooped upon by Karl Rove's henchmen, and stuffed full of factoids - then thrust onto the international stage, she did marvellously.

But as a potential VP - or God help us, President - she was quite obviously not up to the job. Media furore aside, 45% of US households watched the VP debate live last night. So they had 90 minutes to make up their minds about her. And the snap vote came in with Biden clearly in the lead.

Thank heavens. The whole faux-folksy winkin' not blinkin' thing was patronising bollocks.
This is not a gosh-darn Sandra Bullock movie.

Wrinkling her nose, memorising scripted soundbites in short order, and twinkling chattily straight to camera 2 are skills that will stand her in great stead when she gets signed for millions to host her own networked FOX talkshow, mind you.

*wink!*

UPDATE: Doggone - say it ain't so - secret instant message transcript post-debate between McCain, campaign manager and Palin!

UPDATE 2: Laceratingly righteous lambasting of Palin from Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi, hat-tip Geoff