Ellington

Interesting preview on the New York Times' Caucus blog. In part:

Polls show that an increasing number of people think (Palin) is not qualified to be vice president. Will she try to counteract that impression by just keeping her head down, or will she try something dramatic? Will she go after Mr. Biden, or wait to see if he goes after her first? Something dramatic is probably a clue that Senator John McCain, who named Ms. Palin as his running mate a month ago, thinks he's in trouble. If she blunders, she won't necessarily sink the ticket's chances in November, but it sure would reinforce the story line that he exercised bad judgment by picking her in the first place.

Her level of preparation should be evident early on. Watch to see whether she can answer questions with a specificity that has so far eluded her in TV interviews. And look for her to try to shift the focus to the top of the ticket, both to Mr. McCain and to Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.

It will be interesting to see what arguments Ms. Palin tries to make against Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain's chief line of attack in his debate last week was that Mr. Obama didn't understand foreign policy, that he was a naïf on the world stage. Ms. Palin is not well-positioned to make that argument. How she portrays Mr. Obama tonight will give some idea of the McCain strategy between now and Election Day.

Ms. Palin has been referring to herself lately as Joe Six Pack. This is an attempt to cast Mr. Biden as a creature of Washington and lay the groundwork for her to deflect policy questions — she may not know how to fix the nation's financial system but she knows the price of diapers and gasoline. Watch for her to emphasize that she understands the needs of people like you.