Sarah Macarena

Each December, the state of Alaska hosts a holiday party. Bubbling with seasonal cheer, the public are invited to drop by the governor’s mansion — where Sarah Palin rarely spends a night — to nibble cookies, sip warm cider, and exchange good tidings with the state’s chief executives. I’ve never gone, but I might have to break with tradition this year. If nothing else, I’ll have to thank the governor for all the extra work her vice presidential candidacy has given me. Maybe I’ll bring her a six-pack of Rainier.

Anyhow, if you’re a connoisseur of howlingly funny comment threads, I have a piece about the debate at the Minnesota Independent. The Reader’s Digest condensed version:

Palin’s advocates are understandably delighted by her performance in last night’s debate, which did not actually produce the widely-expected fiasco. Palin completed a surprising number of her sentences, and she showed evidence of having successfully assimilated lengthy portions of her stump speech. She was clearly excited to discover that she could recite the occasional facts and figures, and she drew attention to these achievement several times. Visibly and audibly nervous through much of the conversation, Palin nevertheless managed to keep smiling and striking the populist dulcimer, using phrases such as “darn right,” “doggone it,” and “heck of a lot” while trumpeting the virtues of “Joe Six Pack” (a strangely inappropriate metaphor coming from the governor of a state with some of the worst alcohol-related problems in the nation). In all, Palin heroically exceeded the lowest performance expectations in the history of vice presidential debating. To point out that Palin committed a number of gross factual errors — on Afghanistan, on the role of the vice president — seems uncharitable somehow.