Debating Points

From the New York Times via Andrew Sullivan:

At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

Mr. Sullivan has a few thoughts on the matter:

Are you fucking kidding me? We are now rigging the debate formats to compensate for a know-nothing, mendacious Manchurian candidate drilled in meaningless talking points? And the Obama team agreed to this? And so did the press?

Actually, I think the McCain campaign just shot themselves in the foot with both barrels. They are admitting up front that Gov. Palin isn't ready to take the national stage, she's uninformed on the issues of the campaign, and that the standard debate format that the vice presidential candidates have used ever since they've been having the debates is too hard for her. If the Obama campaign had fought them on this, the McCain campaign would have accused them of bullying them into a format that is, for Gov. Palin, unfair. They are undercutting their own message that she's a rootin' tootin' gun-totin' maverick from the wilds of Alaska who can shoot a wolf from an airplane and is ready to shake up Washington, but who in reality can't take the heat of Joe Biden's withering glare on a soundstage. Cluck, cluck.

It's just more proof that their whole campaign is nothing but a fraud, and they just announced it to the press.

(Cross-posted.)