If you give the attractive young news anchor on your hometown station a world-class speechwriter and a team of handlers, my bet is that she could have pulled off Sarah Palin's speech too.

Palin quickly picked up the fallen standard of those Hillary voters who put "18 million cracks" in the glass ceiling. She didn't crack anything. John McCain helicoptered her to the roof, and they led her down the back stairs.

I look in her eyes and get a feeling that, if you cross her, she would drop you as easily as she would a wolf from a helicopter.

Even after intense weeks of charm-school and flash cards sessions, Palin can't go with Biden fact for fact -- on anything. She can't out-debate a guy who plays in the majors. That is his biggest advantage and his biggest problem.

Palin sounds a lot like Lauren Caitlin, the Miss Teen America contestant who became a YouTube sensation with her answer to why one fifth of Americans can't identify the U.S. on a world map.

While consumer advertising has moved on, political advertising is caught in a curious time warp -- combining modern technology with the unfettered, unregulated ability to say down is up and the opponent hates puppies.