With McCain and pals readying the expected slime, Obama will likely stay above the mud level, but non-official groups can help out. There is a huge amount of true dirt that can be made to stick to McCain, with enough money for TV exposure and mailings, but who is going to do it?

Anyone know 527s that are readying counter-slime? I'll gladly chip in bucks needed to join the fray.

As Joe Biden removed an arm here, a leg there, Sarah Palin kept thrashing with her paper sword, reiterating familiar baloney like the tax increase for families reporting $42,000. Biden swatted that item aside, and topped Palin's count of Obama tax increase votes with a number four times larger representing McCain's similar votes. He then dismissed it as a counting trick. Whe Ifill tried to get Palin to respond, she said 'It's only a flesh wound, come back here and fight like a man---I'll bite your leg off!"

Palin is well prepared, for her. But Biden is stomping on her purported facts. Another question, of course, is demeanor, confidence, and all the unconscious reactions that we all feel. I actually felt McCain was stronger than I expected, making my body feel a sense of confidence, even as my brain was resisting his arguments. But Palin makes me uncomfortable, with her flat, smirky chirp.

I was surprised to see so much consensus that Obama did better than McCain, so I won't predict general reaction to this. I only regret I have given more shape to my nightmares, in the form of a (shudder) possible President Palin. Oh, may the polls be sound.