Sarah Barracuda

One thing that stands out for me in Anne Kilkinney's first-hand perspective on "Sarah Barracuda" is her reference to Gov. Palin's "unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness." While appalling to us, it is what makes her so appealing to the conservative base: she's tough, she goes after corruption even in her own party, she'll clean up the mess. A pit bull with lipstick. And never mind that it's her party that made the mess, for the most part. Under the radar, this is the way they're going to run against Bush without saying so.

And now that the Republican masters of image manipulation are doing the make-over, she is going to be a formidable force to deal with. Not only is she the barracuda who will clean up Washington, she's also the new Madonna of the Unaborted Babies, the Pro-Life Poster Family.

They'll probably stop the TrooperGate investigation in Alaska, claiming it's politically motivated to smear her, and besides how many voters really care if she bent the rules a little bit? It's the way Republicans do things -- all the way to the Attorney General and the White House.

By keeping her away from pesky reporters who ask questions, they will avoid showing how ill-prepared she is as well as side-step inconvenient questions about Troopergate and other issues. In addition, it's a scam: we'll all tsk-tsk about their fear of letting her speak, and expectations for her in the debate will be very low. Meanwhile, they buy time to give her a crash course in what she needs to know. And Voila!!! She performs much better than expected and "wins" the debate.

What's to be done? Obama continues on the high road, Biden attacks McCain, not Palin, and send in the women surrogates (Clinton, Sebelius, Pelosi, Napolitano, McCaskill, and others -- what a lineup!) to make the challenges to Palin's extreme conservatism and lack of experience.

And take heart that the early evidence suggests that she has energized their base and resuscitated McCain, but that she does not have much appeal to the moderate Republicans and the Independents.

And that, even at the height of their post-convention bounce, Obama is still leading in the polls !!!!

Ralph