The view from a Spokane bar: Palin's not ready

SPOKANE — It was all Sarah Palin last night here at a debate-watching party. And not necessarily in a good way.

I watched the big debate with a crowd of 40 at The Swamp Tavern, a bar wedged between a freeway and some train tracks just west of this Eastern Washington city's downtown.

Joe Biden was there, on the TV screen, but hardly anyone noticed him. The talk at the bar was all Sarah, all the time.

"No way is she ready to be vice president," said Heidi Boehl, 40, a Spokane massage therapist who was there playing the role of Katie Couric in a Sarah Palin look-alike contest.

"She may be charming, but she's as sincere as polyester."

Janice Kaler, 63, owns The Swamp. She is that most elusive quarry, the undecided swing voter. She is the one they are all fighting for.

Her wrap-up of the debate was as inscrutable as her politics.

"I think she basically held her own. Only sometimes she does say some ridiculous things."

She added she still doesn't know who to vote for.

Shanna Sheridan, 25, a producer for local conservative talk-radio station, KXLY-AM (920), said in the end Palin was good enough.

"All she had to do is get up there and not sound completely stupid," Sheridan said. "She did that."

Sheridan then launched into a smashing Palin impersonation, full of rambling "I betchas," "darn rights" and nasal, exuberant "Alaskas."

"The trick is you put the words in the back of your throat and then talk them out through your nose," she advised.

Sheridan went on to win the look-alike contest. Even though another Palin look-alike showed up at the bar toting a fake gun.

If politics has become nothing but celebrity, this campaign is no contest. Overheard at The Swamp, when it was all over and the regulars began settling back into their beers: "Who was debating Palin again?"

Danny Westneat: 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.