"They said tonight that no US presidential outcome has ever been affected by the second spot ticket. I can't imagine why, frankly. Nowadays the second spot is an important one."

Well, Vice President Cheney is important to an unprecedented degree because he's been calling the shots all along, puppetmaster to Georgie-Boy's marionette. That hasn't been the case ever before, to my knowledge, and would certainly not be the case for the next administeration, regardless of which ticket takes office.

One of the more telling moments in last night's VP debate was when Palin was asked if she agreed with Cheney's idea that he, as veep, can decide at any given moment whether he's part of the legislative or the executive branch, and to switch back and forth as it suits his purposes.

Her response was alarming not so much because she seemed to indicate that she'd like to emulate Uncle Dick, but because she gave no evidence of understanding the question, or even realizing that there's been any controversy over Cheney's attempts to evade investigation.