Palin is said to have done fairly well in debates for governor in 2006.
But that must be taken with a few grains of salt.
Alaska has a total population about equal to the town of Charlotte, North Carolina, somewhat bigger than greater Hamilton, Ontario.
Moreover, Alaska tends to be a haven for drop-out, militia, and go-it-alone types.
And don't forget, local politics anywhere tends to draw more parochial and inadequate people than talented ones.
For all these reasons, the pool of human resources involved in local politics in a place like Alaska is extremely shallow.
Just the fact that a semi-retarded person like Sarah Palin was elected truly does say it all.
Oh, she can sure yell and growl and wave her arms - she would have reached the limits of her talents as captain of a cheerleading team - but she can't even name the newspapers she says she reads.
Is that debating? Whether it can be judged worthwhile, I guess all depends on the make-up the audience.
The trailer-park and revival-meeting crowds will see Sarah as a champion.
As for Biden, he is intelligent, but so is John Edwards.
Like Edwards, Biden has always impressed me as a syrupy phony, with the personality of an egomaniac. He is also rather chameleon-like, often changing what he supports between entering and leaving a room.
So he starts with a certain lack of sympathy for himself, and if he is not very careful with his aggressive temperament, he may actually create sympathy for the mother-type, no matter how ridiculous her words.
