Not only isn’t Palin attacked, her name isn’t so much as mentioned. That’s a smart play, especially after they came out swinging yesterday morning without so much as a congrats. The more I think about it, the more I find her chief demographic virtue to be not her sex but what her persona communicates about her class: Nate Silver calls her “the most manifestly ordinary person ever to be nominated for a major party ticket,” so much so that any sharp attacks right off the bat will look like Obama and Biden bullying someone in the crowd at a town hall event. Not something Barry can afford when he’s counting on those bitter, clingy, gun-totin’ yokels who voted for Hillary in the primary to put him over the top. That’s also why I think Ace is wrong to want Palin to be the attack dog on the trail. The nastier she gets, the sooner she loses her common-man halo and turns into an ordinary partisan politician and the sooner Obama can go nuclear on her. The trick here, obviously, is preserving the halo while also showing off her political skills well enough to make voters comfortable with her in a leadership position. The way to do that, I think, is to wonk her out and make her the point person on energy policy. That’s an issue McCain owns anyway so she’ll pick up extra goodwill from the subject matter; it’s also high time he flipped on ANWR and he can do that now and boost her at the same time by crediting her arguments with changing his mind. As for Obama, he’d be wise to take Bruce Reed’s advice and go easy for now or simply ignore her altogether. The risk that someone’s going to cross the line in belittling her is too great and the media will do the heavy lifting on her weak points anyway. If she surprises at the debate with Biden and their hand is forced, then they can tear her to pieces.