The morning after

And my view of the debate has not changed. Palin did well enough to keep her on the ticket, but did not demonstrate any fundamental curiosity or understanding of complex issues. Not one. She showed she can be briefed and coached in a debate. She showed she can memorize some talking points, but she has yet to fundamentally explain a complex issue. That may be true of many people, but those people aren't running for the Veep spot with the oldest Presidential candidate. Someone described her like a sugar high. You are intrigued with her at the beginning, and then start to quickly tire of her as you frantically look through your cupboards for a little protein.

Or, as Noam Scheiber put it:

"My completely impressionistic take on Palin's performance tonight is that it mirrorred her campaign performance so far (if not quite as dramatically): When Palin started off, you thought, "Wow, she seems so fresh--so human and easy to relate to. How can we compete with that?" Then, as the debate wore on, you thought, "Hmm, okay, she still seems human, but not quite what I'm looking for in a vice president." And, by the end, as the vacuous answers piled up, it was more like, "Good God, keep this woman away from the Oval Office." Which is the story of the last month, too."

Sheiber also quoted one of her more nonsensical and talking points-ridden answer. As if, you might say, she is playing madlibs with disparate talking points about Israel

But, man, ask the woman to grapple with a substantive question and you worry she's going to hurt herself. My favorite Palin response of the night:

IFILL: What has this administration done right or wrong -- this is the great, lingering, unresolved issue, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- what have they done? And is a two-state solution the solution?

PALIN: A two-state solution is the solution. And Secretary Rice, having recently met with leaders on one side or the other there, also, still in these waning days of the Bush administration, trying to forge that peace, and that needs to be done, and that will be top of an agenda item, also, under a McCain-Palin administration.

Israel is our strongest and best ally in the Middle East. We have got to assure them that we will never allow a second Holocaust, despite, again, warnings from Iran and any other country that would seek to destroy Israel, that that is what they would like to see.

We will support Israel. A two-state solution, building our embassy, also, in Jerusalem, those things that we look forward to being able to accomplish, with this peace-seeking nation, and they have a track record of being able to forge these peace agreements.

They succeeded with Jordan. They succeeded with Egypt. I'm sure that we're going to see more success there, also.

It's got to be a commitment of the United States of America, though. And I can promise you, in a McCain-Palin administration, that commitment is there to work with our friends in Israel.

She should never be in the oval office except on a tour. Like me. Like most of you. This Republican bullshit that says we should elect a normal regular "hockey mom" (even if she is that) is unbelievably destructive and irresponsible as we face economic catastrophe, climate change and a war on terror. Neither of those three things, I might add, can Sarah Palin explain, or address, in any kind of complexity. This is not the time for make-believe candidates.