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Heightened are the concerns among American voters about Palin's cluelessness on the economy beyond supermarket price tags. This sentiment has been simmering even before this week's Black Monday - the day the Dow went into a tailspin and plunged 777 points, the worst percentage drop since the October 19 Black Monday crash in 1987. Her confused and rambling answer to Katie Couric on CBS last week about her view on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's bail-out proposal was so damning, even the main street diehard conservatives and feminists - her target political base - were seen flying off her stratosphere in a hurry.

In the same interview, Couric gave Palin a chance to undo the damage she inflicted upon herself by saying that her foreign affairs expertise was derived from the proximity of Alaska to Russia. Palin took the opportunity gladly. Not only that, she confirmed her pride in the position, then upped the ante by talking about Vladimir Putin "rearing his head into the airspace of the United States of America" and his first natural destination being Alaska.

"It is from Alaska that we send out those to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are next to ... to our state," said the self-described "Hockey mom". She was imperiously sincere, and it showed.

With McCain, aged 72, being derided as "older than penicillin", and his recurring melanoma - a deadly type of skin cancer - overshadowing his health, there is no denying that Palin stands literally just one heartbeat away from potentially becoming the country's head of state. Despite almost a decade of the US sinking on the world stage, she would still hold considerable power, especially firepower.

And judging from her previous statements on national security, her ready toughness and religious stance, we can imagine that before she hit that "red button" that would annihilate the human race, she would do it thinking and believing, "No, you must not blink. This is a task from God; it's God's will."

Palin uses her position as governor of Alaska to present herself as an expert on energy. "Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity," said Palin at a town hall meeting in Michigan recently. "And they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not."

There are people who try to compare Palin with former vice president Dan Quayle, who was known to jumble his words in a very awkward manner. The difference is, they say, you could guess what Quayle wanted to say.

The state of Palin's political standing has reached such an appalling level that even some of her critics have begun to sympathise and rationalise. "Free Palin" and "Let Palin be Palin" are their call to McCain's campaign handlers. They argue that she has gone from being a charismatic and excellent communicator to a buffoon because she is "over-coached" and, as a consequence, has lost her confidence. They contend that her recent gaffes could even help in her upcoming debate with Biden because she has managed to lower the public expectation to the point where no matter how she fares in the debate, no one will be disappointed. She could even be declared a winner.

Some offer advice on how best to make lemonade out of the Palin lemon. She is at her best when she goes on the offensive as a combative conservative, when she is an attack-dog chasing down the Democrats. And she may play that role in the debate.

As for today's face-off, Biden is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" predicament. It is not a very gentlemanly thing to attack a woman, even when the same woman goes rabid on you. Biden cannot be perceived as being condescending by bolstering his own credentials and experience at her expense. Feminists might call such an effort "sexist" because, in their view, there are no challenges greater than those facing womanhood. This is an XX chromosome knockout punch. Absolutely!

At the Republican National Convention in St Paul, Minnesota, last month, we saw in Palin a woman truly happy in her own skin. When asked in an interview with an entertainment magazine right after the convention if she was ready to take on the US presidency if necessary, she replied with such coolness, "Absolutely". Since her nomination, Palin has been a good fundraiser and draws sizeable rallies. Interesting, though, is the fact that at times she makes a Freudian slip by elevating herself to the top of the ticket, calling the next White House a "Palin and McCain administration".

Recently, however, Palin's "shoot them caribou and moose" persona has begun to show signs of cracking. She appeared at times overwhelmed and out of her league during her meet-and-greet week with foreign heads of state at the start of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Her body language during her meeting with Henry Kissinger says there could be occasions when she is made to feel less unfettered and less invincible.

In preparation for the big debate, the campaign on Monday quarantined Palin at McCain's ranch in Arizona and flew in her "first dude" and children to provide moral support. The format of the debate has been modified so that the time allotted for each candidate to speak is limited to two minutes instead of the eight minutes during the McCain-Obama debate. It is hard to imagine anything can go wrong in two minutes. Yet the McCain campaign handlers are worried.

Meanwhile, the public is left with the nagging image of President Palin at the White House when the phone rings at 3am. A frantic voice reports that an urgent situation is fast unravelling, and that in the next few hours, when the market opens, another calamitous financial meltdown is going to take place. The voice asks the president what the White House's position on the situation would be.

And the damsel in distress will reply with the same refrain she has been giving throughout the campaign: "Well, in that case, I'm gonna have to get back to ya."