The AB.com Vice Presidential Debate Preview.

The eagerly awaited VP debate finally takes place tonight, live from St. Louis. As much as I hate cliches, the folks in The Show Me State and voters nationwide will be looking for Sarah Palin to "show us" that she's not a total and complete airhead.

That said, if Palin wants to be taken even remotely seriously after tonight, she'll stop talking to the press altogether. I have no idea why she keeps giving interviews to Katie Couric. I suppose Sean Hannity was busy with one of his Freedom Concerts and couldn't lob more softballs at her.

Let's be honest, Couric isn't asking anything out of bounds here. Palin isn't being bullied. She is speaking her mind. Her mind just happens to be filled with whipped cream.



"Sweat is my sanities"?!?

"I've read most of them again... ahhhmmm, all of em. A vast variety of sources"

"Alaska is a like a microcosm of America!"

Good Lord, help us. Jesus, be a benign tumor.

And then, there's this. Palin keeps talking about how her proximity to Russia makes her a foreign policy guru. But did you know the section of Alaska close to Russia is a whopping 550 miles away from Anchorage?

If you never watch a single video on AB.com, watch this one, please.



These frozen Eskimo bamas don't even know her name!!!

DC is even closer to Niagara Falls (300 miles) than Palin is to Little Diomede. I suppose this makes me an expert on all things Canadian, ay? Then again, Palin's never been to Russia, but I've been to Toronto a few times.

So I guess I'm qualified to run the country too. Holla at ya' boy, DaddyMac. Let's make it happen.

Maybe Sarah should have just stuck to her dream of becoming a bigtime TeeVee star.



Some have complained that Crazy Joe Biden has been getting a free pass when he's been piling up gaffes like parking tickets himself.









And that would be true. Joe has said some truly dumb sh*t himself.

The difference is, Biden's been on Capitol Hill since I was in diapers. He's got a long track record of not just being a quack, but being a quack who gets things done and is fairly knowledgeable. He also has the luxury of having been in the public eye for decades. There's no real need to examine his background because by virtue of having already run for President, his background is well established. Palin? Uh, not so much.

This may seem hard, but it's fair. John McCain got a similar pass this year because he's a known commodity, while Barack Obama had to divorce himself from his own church and half of Black America. Again, it's a different level of scrutiny that comes with being the new guy, or in Palin's case, the new gal on the block. These are the risks you take when you appoint a running mate that nobody's ever even heard of at the 11th hour. Mitt Romney wouldn't have been as scrutinized. Tim Kaine would have. Again, it's hard, but it's fair, so lets stop making poor Sarah out to be some victim here. She ain't.

Many are already up in arms that Palin is going to be attacked by debate moderator Gwen Ifill because Ifill has written a book about Obama's run for the Presidency that's due out in January. Whatever. As if the sista wouldn't be a consummate pro knowing full and darn well that the entire country is expecting her to favor Biden. Ifill is a journalist, first and foremost. To think that she'd risk the reputation she's worked years to build to hang Palin when Palin is perfectly capable of doing that on her own is ludicrous. Get offa that bullsh*t.

I predict that Palin will hold her own. The debate format doesn't allow for cross-questioning, and I doubt that many questions on these candidates personal views will be asked. They are, above all, SuperSurrogates™for their running mates, and all they'll be asked to do is speak on behalf of their candidates. So, I predict few gaffes for Palin, no "Ike Turner moment" for Crazy Joe, and prolly an itchy Tivo finger by 9:30 for yours truly.

Then again, as they say in sports "that's why they play the game." So, we'll tune in and see how all his pans out.

Question: What do you expect to see in tonight's Veep debate? Will Palin hold her own? Will Crazy Joe do something blatantly sexist? Should Gwen Ifill be required to step down?