PALIN VS. BIDEN TONIGHT

Sure, this promises to be entertaining. Biden who's known for using a thousand words when ten would suffice vs. Palin who can't seem to find the right words ever. When I first saw Palin give her speech at the RNC I was actually a bit impressed. Then we learned how full of shit she is, like the Bridge To Nowhere for example. And her very limited interviews since have proven she's way over her head. Many of her answers to relatively simple questions have been incoherent.

But...

what bugs me is so many people treating her with kid gloves and acting like media should 'back off'. The McCain camp has been limiting her exposure to interviews by design because they know she can't keep up. For so many Americans to act like 'it's only the vice-presidency; it's a do-nothing job anyway' is absurd.

Do they realize she'd be that cliched heartbeat away from the presidency, and under a man who'd be the oldest elected and who has a history of cancer?

Also, consider this. We've had 43 presidents including our current president. 9 times the vice-president has had to step up and assume the presidency. 43 presidents. 9 times. That's huge! Four of the nine was due to illness (Harrison died of pneumonia in 1842 making John Tyler president, Taylor in 1850 bringing in Fillmore, Harding of a heart attack in 1923 ushering in Calvin Coolidge and Roosevelt's death bringing in Truman). You could argue we have much better medicine now. But 4 more of those 9 were due to assassination. Lincoln to Andrew Johnson, Garfield to Arthur, McKinley to Teddy Roosevelt, and Kennedy to Johnson. That's almost 10 percent of the administrations. That's huge. The last one of the 9 was when Nixon resigned by the way.

So my point is let's not discount the serious nature of tonight's debate and certainly not the importance of asking how qualified these two really are to assume the presidency. History has taught us it happens all the time.