SIGNIFICANDO

Outside the Beltway reckons that Thursday's VP debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden--On stage together in St. Louis!! One Night Only!!--is "sure to be the most watched vice presidential debate in history." "Talk about must-see TV," says THR.com. The good old hi-def flat-panel LCD hasn't been kind to Gov. Palin since her triumphant GOP convention speech. Tina Fey's Saturday Night Live parodies of the Alaska Guv have been so sharp that Weekly Standard wonders about The Tiny Fey Effect on the election. Attention Deficit Disorder suggests Fey's future is secured if John McCain and Palin win, but polls do show Barack Obama surging a bit, says Daily Kos. Palin's vague answers to Katie Couric's CBS interviews have made some, like Morning Cup o Joe somehow giddy and scared at the same time. Observes Teachable Moment: "As Katie Couric has learned, using the phrase 'what specifically...' is pretty much like flipping a switch on the Sarah Palin gibberish answer machine,"

"For crying out loud, learn to parry a question," suggests supporter Matt Lewis at Townhall, in his debatin' advice for Palin. Crunchy Con suggests Palin can defeat Biden by "turning every question into an opportunity to talk about how she and [husband] Todd are just like Joe and Jane Sixpack. Biden can't touch this." Across the aisle, Tom Farer at HuffPo advises Biden to quiz Palin on specifics, while Bullfight warns the loquacious Biden: "the best debate tactic is to do less talking." Let's get ready to rumble! ®

Debate moderator Gwen Ifill came under fire for what Power Line labels "a shocking conflict of interest." Her book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, will be published around the time of the inauguration. "If there isn't an Age of Obama, then doesn't Ifill's book title look rather ... lame?," notes Hot Air. Newsbusters suggests Ifill's questions at the 2004 VP debate "displayed an undeniable bias against Vice President Cheney." McCain himself has objected.

Debates come and go, but meltdowns endure. Last night the U.S. Senate voted 74-25 in favor of a Wall Street bailout/rescue package--yea-hoo-- and now it's back to the House, which rejected the general idea Monday but is under heavy pressure to pull out the $700,000,000,000 rubber stamp this time, says The Swamp. The revised and "sweetened' (via Consumerist) new bill still loans up to $700 extra-large to financial companies but "adds tax cuts to the swindle," says Bad American, so the plan can placate Main Street. The bill oughta "quiet consituents down" by sheltering the middle class from the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax, Wallstrip points out. Notes detritus: "it's now 451 pages long and contains such gems as Section 503 Exemption from Excise Tax for Certain Wooden Arrows Designed for Use by Children." Full bill here. Both McCain and Obama voted in favor, so, er, it's "time to write in Ron Paul," says US Civil Flags.

All the political buzz has done wonders for traffic at Twitter (it always comes back to Twitter), says Epicenter. Elsewhere in tech this week, Apple was threatening (a bit emptily ) to kill iTunes if the government approves a higher per-song royalty for artists. You may not rejoice in demise the JellyCloud until you learn from Valleywag that it is an ancestor of Gator, a pioneering spyware company. Engadget reports that a British MI6 spy sold a camera on eBay without deleting some supposedly top secret images! And Google has relaunched its Blog Search page as a Techmeme killer, says A VC (more on that here).

Celebrities, meanwhile, are urging you to vote -- or not vote? Public Service Announcements starring Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Leonardo DiCaprio and many other seriously good-looking people (did we mention Natalie Portman?) say "don't vote!" but they totally mean the opposite, says Just Jared. And you can't miss the new Sarah Silverman video urging Jewish grandchildren to get make The Long Schlep to Florida to get their grandparents to vote (for Obama).