If you mean 'knock out blow' in the intellectual form, keep dreaming.  A victory for Palin would be if she looks like a reasonable vice-presidential candidate and holds her own against Biden.

A near tie would be a win for Palin.

That is some bias you've got there.

Most normal people think Palin will do pretty poorly, and probably embarass herself.

That is some bias you've got there.

Normal people think Palin will do just fine.

Maybe there will be some new economic problem this week that gets people's attention away from the debate? That would probably be the best outcome for her ticket.

Every word that comes out of Palin's mouth will make Bob Schieffer laugh himself to death, and then without moderation, it will revert to the mudwrestling scenario.

Seriously though, this "maverick" bullshit has got to stop. It's not maverickosity that gets a politician to stop talking to cameras. A real maverick would've done more than 3 interviews by now. Biden will eat her alive. All he has to do is show up, and Palin will lose by default by talking about her foreign policy experience again.

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.

 

She's like the kid in class who either didn't bother to read the material, or wasn't smart enough to understand it. And when she gets called on, she bullshits until the teacher mercifully tells her to shut the fuck up.

Yes! That's exactly how to explain it. I hate those kids! Now I know why I hate Palin! Thank you!

@ Ghost of RubangB

You're like that kid in class who always brought alcohol to school and sat on the floor in the back of the class naked.

Good God your avatar is awesome. Not as awesome as bdbdbd's. (I think he is the one with the hairy guy)

She can only hope.

I cannot understand how people can possibly think this woman is fit to run a country, and I mean any country. Shes batshit insane.

I wonder whether Palin will be able to meet even the quite low expectations for her debate performance. So far, the only times she's performed well in this campaign have been times when she's been standing in front of an all-Republican audience and reading off of a teleprompter.

One factor working against her is that she will have a full 90 seconds to respond to each question. In her recent interview with Katie Couric, most of her answers became nonsensical after the first couple of sentences. (This may or may not be why ABC edited her interview with Charlie Gibson so that viewers only heard the first sentence of her response to several questions.)

Also, she will be asked about a wide variety of topics--anything from the economy to Iran is fair game. This is unlike her interviews, which have each focused on a particular area (e.g., foreign relations). It should limit her ability to study up on things that she doesn't know much about (and didn't have any reason to know about before she was nominated for VP a few weeks ago).

Of course, none of us have ever seen her debate before, so who knows? Maybe it will bring out previously hidden knowledge and skill.

As for Biden, there's definitely danger for him, too. Hopefully he noticed that Palin came off much worse in her interview with Couric than in her interview with Gibson. I think this is in large part because Gibson came across as condescening, which seemed to evoke sympathy for Palin from many viewers, whereas Couric remained very pleasant, even when asking tough questions. Couric's approach left no obvious excuse for Palin's sometimes flustered manner or her often shallow and meandering responses.

As long as Biden clearly conveys his knowledge of the issues without also seeming condescending or bullying--and as long as he doesn't commit a major gaffe--he should be fine.