From deep in a NYT arti­cle about Sarah Palin’s prepa­ra­tions for the press and Joe Biden:

Aides trav­el­ing with Ms. Palin have reported back to asso­ciates that she is a fast study—asking few ques­tions of her policy briefers but quickly repeat­ing back their main points—who already has con­sid­er­able ease and expe­ri­ence before cameras.

A former aide in Alaska who had helped pre­pare Ms. Palin for her cam­paign debates there said she had a talent for dis­till­ing infor­ma­tion into digestible sound bites. The aide said she gen­er­ally prefers light prepara­tory mate­ri­als to heavy brief­ing books…

Remind you of anyone?

UPDATE [9/11]: I see that Andrew Sul­li­van and others have had the same thought. What can I say? Garbage in, garbage out. When I get my brain back from the clutches of this unholy obses­sion, I’ll try to steer clear of such low-​hanging fruit.

UPDATE [9/11]: Just a little more fuel for this par­tic­u­lar fire. Here’s Palin in her inter­view with Char­lie Gibson tonight:

GIBSON: And you didn’t say to your­self, “Am I expe­ri­enced enough? Am I ready? Do I know enough about inter­na­tional affairs? Do I–will I feel com­fort­able enough on the national stage to do this?”

PALIN: I didn’t hes­i­tate, no.

GIBSON: Didn’t that take some hubris?

PALIN: I–I answered him yes because I have the con­fi­dence in that readi­ness and know­ing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so com­mit­ted to the mis­sion, the mis­sion that we’re on, reform of this coun­try and vic­tory in the war, you can’t blink.

(Photo illus­tra­tion by The Huff­in­g­ton Post.)