THANK YOU ANDREW JOHNSON

OK, sure, Johnson was on the sauce the rainy morning of Mar/4/1865 and ya, he rambled through his oath, for 20 minutes speaking incoherently, trying at one point to address each secretary by name - Mr. Stanton, Mr. Seward - down the ranks, until he reached Mr. Wells, whose name he could not remember. No problem; he turned to an aide and asked loudly, "What’s the name of the Secty of the Navy?" Gideon Wells them whispered to Stanton that "Johnson’s either drunk or crazy." Well, certainly drunk but not crazy: In 1867 Johnson hurried through the purchase of Alaska. If he hadn’t, Sarah Palin would be Canadian.

From the moment Palin shook Biden’s hand and the microphone picked up, "Hey, can I call you Joe?" - the night belonged to her. She was clear and accurate on foreign policy, crystal clear on the war; her scolding Biden and Obama for waving the white flag was spot on. On education, on the economy, she was running on all cylinders. As we predicted, she did not allow Biden to pull her into territory familiar to him - Washington, insider stuff (that which would gag the Founders). Instead she played the outside game.

She personally connected with the viewer, was comfortable and looked directly at the audience.

Knowing that Palin would hand Biden his equipment we began to feel for the guy, even wanting her to ease off a tad, understanding that he is not fair game. We recalled the interview by Couric on "CBS Ev News". Biden said that when the stock market crashed FDR went on TV and told his audience all about it. Of course, this was the wrong president; oh, and then that little bit about TV. Whoa now. Sure enough, Biden was consistent in the debate, saying for example that it is "wrong, wrong, wrong" that Obama said he would sit down with the Iranian president but then going right on to defend Obama’s willingness to do it. Hmmm?

One pal from the left reminded us the other day of the smear of Palin by Kathleen Parker, Parker a reasonably well known conservative commentator who claimed Palin would be challenged to string two sentences together. Really? "Some women are just catty that way," noted another female pundit. "The more accomplished and popular and beautiful the woman in question is, the more they hate her." Seems to fit. So much for Parker; so much for Biden.

Robert Craven