By The River

On paper, Sen. Joe Biden should wipe the floor with Gov. Sarah Palin in the vice presidential debate tonight in St. Louis. He is an experienced and respected U.S. Senator who heads the Foreign Relations Committee. Palin, on the other hand, has managed to make cringe-worthy remarks on each of the few times the McCain campaign has allowed her to speak to the press, most notably in the recent Katie Couric interview.

But Biden is prone to what I'll call "honest gaffes" in which the vocal cords get out ahead of the brain synapses. A recent example of this was when he commented that President Frankin D. Roosevelt spoke "on television" to the American people about the Great Depression. Of course, he meant FDR's famous "Fireside Chats" on radio. He knew that. He just misspoke himself. The danger is that this sort of a gaffe can prove a distraction to his and Barack Obama's overall message.

Not that I think it's going to matter. Obama is surging in the polls, taking a significant lead over McCain overall and in important swing states like Pennsyvania, Ohio, and Florida. I was driving through Hampden Twp. in West Shore suburban Harrisburg yesterday and was pleased at the number of Obama yard signs I saw in this Republican stronghold. If Obama can keep up the good work, our eight-year national nightmare that began with the stolen election in 2000 may soon be over.