Let the games begin

Sarah Palin’s debate with Joe Biden is set for tomorrow, and if you listen closely you can almost hear the reporters, supporters, critics and opponents chomping at their bits.

For some, this will be their first view of Palin’s debating skills. And it might help make up a few minds.

For others, it will be a chance to compare how well she spars with Biden with her performance against Andrew Halcro, Tony Knowles and even John Stein.

The blogosphere has been chattering, almost since McCain announced his pick, with speculation about how Palin will hold up against the senator from Delaware. The predications have been, for lack of a better word, mostly predictable, dictated by the author’s own leanings.

Oddly, the Google Alert tagged to the word “Wasilla” that turned up in my in box today contained not one meaty pre-debate story (though I did get 30 other headlines on topics as varied as a 1999 wedding Palin officiated at our local Wal-Mart to Palin-themed Halloween costume ideas).

Since the Palin announcement, by the way, that particular alert has yielded more than 60 articles daily. “Susitna,” “Matanuska” and “Talkeetna” continue to produce just a handful each week.

But as far as the McCain campaign is concerned, word is they’ve had her engaged in some preparatory sparring with a campaign staffer standing in for Biden.

The campaign even sent a photograph (see accompanying photo). It is somewhat bizarre to see lecterns set up in such a pastoral setting. Without the attached explanation one might confuse Palin’s efforts as being geared towards planning a garden party.

Let’s hope (or not, depending on how you lean) that having debated under the trees amid chirping birds, she isn’t thrown off when it comes time to take the stage and the cameras are flashing, the crowd cheering.

Personally, and much to my dismay, I will be on the road somewhere between Chicago and Minneapolis when the debate happens. I’ll be out for four or five days attending a family function.

But I plan to have the thing Tivoed and waiting for me when I return. So please, nobody spoil the ending.

—Andrew Wellner, reporter