Maureen Dowd goes on a roll. And despite the double dose of condescension she actually gets the Sarah Palin phenomenon right. What’s the Obama-Biden team up against? It’s a sappy movie plot:

The movie ends with the former beauty queen shaking out her pinned-up hair, taking off her glasses, slipping on ruby red peep-toe platform heels that reveal a pink French-style pedicure, and facing down Vladimir Putin in an island in the Bering Strait. Putting away her breast pump, she points her rifle and informs him frostily that she has some expertise in Russia because it’s close to Alaska. “Back off, Commie dude,” she says. “I’m a much better shot than Cheney.”

The McCain camp’s response (I would assume): “Darn right.”

The advantage that Palin has is that there will be more than enough colorful anecdotes to fill up the days between now and Election Day. Provided she doesn’t stumble in the VP debate or make fatal gaffes, she can keep the media, and much of the public, entranced for a couple months. Suddenly, the elite, eastern urbanite Democratic ticket seems sort of dull. Who would have thought?