I Think I'm in Love with Joe Biden.

I always know that an ad will be particularly delicious when the McCain approval comes at the beginning: that's his way of announcing that he's takin' off the gloves:

He's just so . . . . straightforward. What you see is what you get. He can't help himself. He's Joe. Via AllahP at Hot Air, who remarks

The ‘Cuda is already wielding talking points about Biden ripping on Obama during the primaries for his vote to defund the war. Expect to see that tonight when the subject turns to Iraq in an attempt to bait him into losing his cool. Everyone knows that JB can BS his way through the Q&A; the challenge for him lies simply in not coming off like an abject jackass. If he can’t manage that for 90 minutes, he deserves to be replaced by Hillary.

To which the PUMAs would remark, "too little, too late."

The Morrester adds:

Here are the keys that I’ll watch on each candidate.

• Sarah Palin: She has to stay aggressive with both Joe Biden and moderator Gwen Ifill. She has to attack the assumptions behind the questions, as Ifill will attempt to box her into desired responses. Biden will damn her with faint praise, being condescending while on the surface seeming courtly. She needs to push back against that. Most importantly, she needs to stop worrying about details and speak to themes and concepts, similar to what Barack Obama needed to do in his debate, and mostly failed. Best attack point: Biden’s pork.

• Joe Biden: He has a tougher assignment. He has to give the appearance of jabbing while trying to throw haymakers. Normally, I’d expect a man with Biden’s experience to attempt to drown Palin with details, but Biden has a habit of inventing those on the fly. Would Ifill call him on that? Doubtful, but the post-debate spin could get brutal. He can’t attack on experience, either, given Obama’s own short record of service, and can’t get by with the Joe Sixpack routine, either. He’ll want to press his advantage on foreign policy. Best attack point: Foreign travel.

I expect this debate to be filled with canned sound bites, gotcha asides, and very little in the way of substantive policy debate. In other words, business as usual. However, Palin has the most to gain and the most to lose in this debate. Biden is a known quantity and even a poor debate showing won’t hurt Barack Obama, but a disaster from Palin will provide a drag on the ticket that only clear wins in the coming debates by John McCain can reverse.

May I remind everyone that—biased moderator or not—this is Sarah Palin against Joe Biden?

What does everyone going to think will happen? It isn't easy to get under Palin's skin; with Biden, it's impossible not to. If Biden takes his meds, he loses. If he doesn't, he loses.