Funny that Palin mentioned North Korean leader Kim Jong-il several times (see, ya guys, I do have what it takes, cause I know their names, and I can see some of them) during the debate, considering she shares his knack for turning weakness into strength.

Like Kim, Pailn uses her disadvantages — lack of understanding, experience, knowledge, vision — to drag her opponent down into a rarefied, dumbed down debate over who loves Israel the most and hates “the dictators” more.

Palin makes up for her ignorance by looking straight into the camera, talkin ta us folks on main street, and reminding us that they “hate us,” Kim Jong-il hates America, Ahmedinijad hates America. They hate that a woman can shoot a moose here, u hear that, and this guy here, “Joe,” or “Obiden” as I think I heard her say, they want to talk to them.

Now what’s Joe gonna say? How’s he going to condense a complex international affair into a soundbyte that doesn’t make the Dem’s look spineless and “intellectual,” cause god forbid that’s the last thing we need. The result is that Palin takes her profound ignorance and uses it as the basis for a policy of paranoia that to even try and argue against would tarnish even the most eloquent and subtle of speakers.

That’s the brilliance of Palin. Her simplicity sets the ceiling on the issues at hand, leaving barely enough head-room (pun intended) for Biden to try and drag the audience back out of the collective darkness she wants to keep them in.

Now this is not to take away from Kim Jong-il, cause I think he’s probably got a better grasp of world affairs than does Sarah. He can see Russia too, remember. He’s practically her neighbor in that respect. And like the governor, he was thrust into a position as a prop for someone else; her for McCain and him for his dad.

What’s more, Pyonyang’s got a remarkable talent in harnessing fear, threats, and blather to mask what are inherently terrible weaknesses in its positions vis-a-vis the rest of the world. And it works damn well at keeping them in power, goin’ on six decades now.

Let’s hope the same isn’t true for the Republicans. Vote Obama.