By Warren Hinckle

The Republicans are the finest ambush artists in political historie. Give credit where credit is due.

The Rep’s sneak thieves  stole Jimmy Carter’s briefing book before his big debate with Ronald Reagan, and brought us the October Surprise -  whereby in 1980 Republican operatives cut a secret deal with Iran to delay the release of Americans held hostage until after the presidential election -  thereby ensuring Carter’s defeat – in return for billions in arms shipped furtively to Iran through Israel and other cutouts (see: Iran-Contra Scandal.)

Thursday, they brought us the Palin-Biden Debate. Touche! The Washington Times, the Moonie daily broadsheet, presciently dubbed it a “Thrilla in Manila” match. It was the only paper with high expectations – given their Republican-engineered overwhelmingly low expectations for Palin. (The Times, which was launched as  Rev. Moon’s brave expedition into the opinion jungle, is widely considered The right-wing daily in the Federal City -but that’s because most people don’t read the daily D.C. edition of the San Francisco Examiner, which makes the Moonie editorial hacks look like lib-symp weanies.)

The Thursday night surprise  all snuffed stuffed  the talking heads of cable news channel chatterers and took by surprise a smug Democratic seraphin which to a man and woman were sagely nodding that Palin was a bolix to any national ticket and John McCain’s Great Mistake. The result was a media shock wave, an editorial  tusamini which God Bless  Tiny Timprouduced headlines throughout the nation hailing the triumph of the underdog, who been previously  downgraded by the elite to road kill. NO BAKED ALASKA was the tabloid headline on the cover of the New York Daily News, the self-styled voice of the masses, which declared Palin the winner of the debate – “Pit Bull Sarah takes a few chomps out of him,” the front page said of Biden, who  had debated more than competenly and was virtually straining his groin trying to Do No Harm. The hands-off-the- dingy- broad approach did him little good against the Alaskan Annie Oakley.

The Democrats, who loftily went along with the media consensus, were, once again, mugged in an alley of the Republican’s choosing.

Let us not be cynical: Surely, the Rep operatives didn’t help set the playing trouble so that Sarah Palin had only not to belch moose breath to be considered competent.

Surely, the Reps didn’t have the smarts to encourage media blowhards suggesting none to subtly that Sara was  as ditsy as Mrilyn Monroe famously walking into Martindale’s Book Store in Beverley Hills to buy three volumes of The Life and Work of  Sigmund Freud.

Surely, they didn’t give a green light to skittish conservative pundits to opine that she was becoming a liability to the ticket.

Certainly, they didn’t allow the heavily managed little Sarah to blow some of her answers to Cathy Couric to heighten the negative media tidal wave.

And, most certainly, they didn’t negotiate the veep debate ground rules with the unsuspecting Democrats so sure she would loose the match no matter what to ninety second answers without followup that favored Palin’s sound-bite dialogue, charmingly  vapid, just folks-speak method of communicating to her extreme advantage.

If you believe the Reps did none of this kind, then I have some outstanding shares of stock in Emperor Norton’s bridge to the Farralones I will sell you at a discount.

At our place people watching the debate were filling out  internet-generated “Palin Bingo” cards  where the squares were filled with her very favorite cliches.  First player to check five boxes in any straight or diagonal line – put an X thru Main Street, Surge, Mayor, Wasilla, Gee, Joe Six Pack, Soccer Mom, Maverick, Special Needs, Reformer, Family, et cetera – and Bingo!

You betcha’ she used those buzz word communication tools -but darned if it didn’t come across charming. She didn’t breathe moose breath on Biden. She smoked him.

When Biden did the right thing and tied McCain’s policies to Bush’s disaster-prone presidency, she, far more than McCain ever has done, kicked Bush under the bus – than backed it up and ran over him again. She invoked the iconic Democratic “There you go again’ line  when heproffered the Bush=McCain connect, saying bringing up Bush was just oh, so old – you’re talking about the past, Senator, and I’m all about the future! Bush was h-i-s-t-o-r-y. Don’t know much about history. Big Smile.

Palin instantly established her Main Street creds by bouncing onto the debate stage like a warming up volley ball player and asked if she could call the long in the tooth, long-termed Democratic Senator “Joe” – in the manner of someone asking a stuffed shirt if she could loosen his tie, he must be oh, so uncomfortable.  On she went,  at least  to in my hearing over the shouts of Bingo! never to bother with calling him Joe.

Her overnight Hit Parade heartland status would never have been possible if the Rep smarties had not massaged the low expectations thing to a near-zero. She was obviously prepared as all hell and ready for the game; the Democrats were smack-dab lured into Sara Baracuda’s lair.

The Obama-boosting New York Times was in a bother the next morning. It could barley contain it’s annoyance over Palin’s successful performance  and worried its knitting keedles that she only looked good because expectations had been set so low — oblivious of it own leading role in lowering those very expectations. That was the game plan, stupid.