Glib Guidance

The biggest failure in network news has some advice for one of America's biggest political stars.

Couric thinks Sarah Palin has a thing or two to learn about politics before she contemplates a White House run in 2012. "I think she should keep her head down, work really hard and learn about governing.

Katie is right, actually. That is what Sarah should do. Blow everyone away in a couple of years by just how informed she is.

But I'm not anyone to give advice to anyone about anything," she told Page Six at Glamour Magazine's 2008 Women of the Year Awards dinner at the Essex House.

Right again!

Although her interview with Palin made the Alaska governor look dumb (while rejuvenating Couric's flagging career in the process), Couric won't give herself too much credit. "I was really just a conduit that allowed her to air her views," she said. "I don't want to judge. I'll let the voters do that."

Of course you will.

Relaxing

While Sarah is being mocked for her answer to Katie's question about what newspapers she reads - obviously, she's not over her nerves or she could have at least mentioned the Anchorage Daily News - I see this as a sign that she's calming down.

Palin avoids the question with a confident sidestep about how Alaska isn't a foreign country. This is what slick politicians do to avoid being cornered.

Joe's Bad Day

Democrats are wringing their hands over the possibility of Sarah Palin being a heartbeat from the presidency. Perhaps they should be more concerned over Joe Biden.

The Democratic ticket seems flumoxed. First, Biden was chastised by Barack for having said last week that AIG shouldn't be bailed, then Biden told Katy Couric that he thought the Obama campaign ad that attacked McCain for not using a computer was terrible - "If I'd had anything to do with it we never would have done it." - then he told a voter that the campaign's policy is anti-coal even though the campaign's position supports clean coal.)

What a day! And then there's this one.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened,'" Barack Obama's running mate recently told the "CBS Evening News."

Biden said this in the same interview, shown last night, with Katy Couric.

Except, Republican Herbert Hoover was in office when the stock market crashed in October 1929.

Not to mention that when FDR wanted to speak to the American people, he did it on the radio.

FDR was elected three years later when voters denied Hoover a second term. The Democratic challenger appealed to the "forgotten man" by promising a "new deal" to solve the Depression era.

Can you imagine the uproar if Sarah Palin was as dumb as Joe Biden?

Democrats usually like to remind the public that a Republican was president during the 1929 stock market crash. During the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry's campaign repeatedly cited Hoover as the last president until George W. Bush to oversee a loss of jobs during his time in office.