Sarah Smells Blood

A large group of white people showed up in St. Paul, Minnesota last night to cheer on America’s Homecoming Queen and Junior Class President, and then dance awkwardly to some crazy song called “Raisin’ McCain” sung by some country music guy only country music fans are familiar with. I’m not sure if they understood the irony of the title of the song. While the happy family played Hot Potato with Snow White's Down syndrome baby, the cameras panned desperately for a face of color, occasionally finding one and then lingering on it for an awkwardly long moment. And poor Levi Johnston made his debut as the groom in America’s next reality TV show, Shotgun Wedding.

All Governor Palin had to do last night was not screw up, and she had plenty of time to practice her speech, sequestered in a hotel for five days lest she actually have to face questions about her questionable past from a curious press, now the enemy of the McCain camp for doing the job McCain failed to do.

The speech was textbook Sean Hannity (minus Sean's daily, coded allusions to the Antichrist), although delivered in the voice of the school secretary from Ferris Buehler’s Day Off. Ms. Palin proved herself worthy of a fight, and I hope Senators Biden and Obama come at her swinging wildly, caring not for her gender nor playing nice in deference to her neophyte status. She’s a pit bull in lipstick by her own account, and the only way I know to fight a rabid pit bull is to whack it in the head with a baseball bat.

Let the battle begin.