With all the instant polls and surveys declaring Joe Biden the winner in last night's vice presidential debate, it's obvious that Sarah Palin isn't going to help John McCain attract a lot of undecided voters.

What she did accomplish, however — and give her credit for this — is shore up support from the GOP's Christian right-wing base. She didn't come across as the incoherent LensCrafters model we saw in the Katie Couric interviews — and in fact, was as sharp as someone can be who's only been paying attention to the big issues (to quote her) "for like what, five weeks?" Obama supporters shouldn't underestimate the energizing effect Palin is having on the Christian right — those are a lot of votes, as was proven in Bush's 2004 re-election. The irony for the McCain campaign is that, as his own approval numbers tank, it's Christian Hottie that's keeping him in the race — kind of like Mary holding up Baby Jesus, if you will.

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