Ramesh Ponnuru on Palin's "Command of the Facts"

Over at Right Matters, a Washington Post discussion site, moderator and conservative talking head Ramesh Ponnuru writes that Palin last night "showed at least as strong a command of the facts as Senator Biden."

My question for Ponnuru: On what single issue did Sarah Palin even represent that she has more than a surface grasp of the facts? Come on. On point after point, Sarah Palin demonstrated--effectively--that she can work from the script. Nothing more. To Ponnuru I say show me one aspect of the discussion last night where Sarah Palin clearly knew exactly what she was talking about. To have shown "as strong a command of the facts" as Biden did would demand that Palin step off script for a moment and really articulate something that demonstrated her complete understanding of an issue. Economy? Bailout? Iraq? Afghanistan? Israel? Pakistan? The Constitution? Office of the VP?

Nada. Palin dug in and effectively stoked the McCain fires and her own populist appeal, worked the camera and lobbed assaults at the Obama platform, but she never once demonstrated a handle on anything but the most basic talking points. Given 20 minutes prep on McCain's website, I could have demonstrated as much "command of the facts" as Sarah Palin did last night.

Come to think of it, I believe I'll join the discussion and share exactly that with Ponnuru and the rest of Palin's cheerleaders.