Palin's star burns brightly over our town

by Will Bunch | Columnist

Published Sep. 25, 2008, 7:35 p.m. ET

Philly is clearly the place for political celebrities to hang these days -- first one of those indistinguishable Iraqi pols, and now Sarah Palin is here for a whopping 48 hours, which is like 10 months in politician-dog-years, doing, well...God only knows what. Apparently, it's the Dean Martin syndrome -- everybody's got to be somewhere, and with her campaign "suspended," somewhere is Philadelphia.

The only event on her schedule: She's going to be hangin' at the Irish Pub on Friday night. Who knew that Palin had a burning desire to meet Pat Burrell.

Meanwhile, the Alaska governor finally laid out the significance of her Sino-Alaska relations strategy. I could offer some snarky comment, but in the interest of America's future, why don't you read her exchange with CBS' Katie Couric tonight and decide for yourself on her presidential readiness:

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.