Cause for Concern

I'll try and get to the point for once: one source of confidence we all have going forward is that on October 2 at Wash U, Joe Biden will spin circles around Sarah Palin so fast she won't even know if Russia is still the country next door to Alaska.

But I saw Biden on "Meet the Press" yesterday. Two things were clear: he knows what he's talking about, and he doesn't know how to talk about the stuff he knows. He ran his mouth too long and presented answers that weren't to the point enough and didn't seal the argument the way he needed to. Essentially, he may well have the same problem Kerry did: by the time he's done with his answer, those still awake won't have any idea what he was trying to say, and then his opponent will have the opportunity to make a quick jab and score the point.

Here's a conversation as I see it going down:

Moderator: Do you still favor negotiating with Iran without preconditions?

Biden: Well, look Bob/John/Steve/Chris/Tom/whomever, it's dangerous not to talk to these countries! It's dangerous to just push these guys around in the name of American ignorance and not give them a voice. And we're doing the same thing with Syria. And this president won't meet with them. And see Tom/Dick/Harry, that's our problem, we've got a ticket we're running against that actually thinks policies like this are a good idea. If we want to meet our goals, we have to talk to Ahmadinejad and see what he wants. (Optional 45 seconds more of unrelated ranting)

Moderator: Governor Palin, your response?

Palin: See what he wants?! You know, for all his experience Joe Biden is still living in a naive fantasy world. In today's dangerous times, when Muslim extremists are trying to attack our country, the Democrats just want to sit down to tea with these guys and see how they're feeling. John McCain won't be appeasing the terrorists, he'll be defending our country, which is what he'll always do, because he'd rather see John McCain lose than see America lose.