The clock is ticking.

Chris Wallace indicated at the end of Fox News Sunday today that he will bring back the time clock that he used for more than two years to ultimately grind down Barack Obama and shame him into enduring a relentless Wallace grilling.

This time the clock is set for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, who faces a Wallace interrogation, the ferocity of which causes the most assured of national politicians to quake in their boots.

Obviously, having just endured an assault on her abilities and integrity from ABC's Charles Gibson that left - well, Gibson actually - floundering like a fish out of water, Palin is teetering on her high heels in fear of facing Wallace.

Just to get his point across Wallace devoted the first 15 minutes of today's show to trashing her performance in Alaska with help from a local Democratic hack whose rapier like thrusts were breathtaking in their effectiveness.

For example:

Wallace: What do you think of Sarah Palin's record (abilities, integrity, hairdo, shoe style, etc.)

Alaskan Democratic Hack: We can't take four more years of failed Bush policies, yak, yak, yak; The McCain-Palin Team is just George Bush in disguise, yada, yada, yada; Bridge to Nowhere, natter, natter, natter!

Whoopee! With allies like that on his side Obama is sure to recover the ground he lost in the polls over the last month. I don't understand why no one on the GOP side ever comes up with assets like that.

How can we ever survive such focused, effective attacks from the Chicago Democratic machine?

It was obvious from the tone and direction of Wallace's interview that Palin is in for week after week of relentless pounding unless she folds and agrees to appear on his show. She did get an able assist from her Lieutenant Governor, but let's be up front here, after all, he will get a promotion if Palin becomes the Vice President of the United States so what should we expect from him? Right?

(It's hard to imply sarcasm in a column so I'll come right out and tell you, the previous segment was sarcastic. The Lieutenant Governor did a good job because he stuck to the facts, while the other side stuck to Obama campaign talking points.)

Here is my prediction. I believe that all the Democratic attacks aside, Gov. Palin has 10 times more experience and ability than Barack Obama, so conversely, I believe she will be ready for a Wallace interview in one-tenth of the time it took Barack Obama to prepare.

Thus, since Obama went something over 750 days before consenting to a sit-down with Wallace, I predict Gov. Palin will be ready for Wallace in 75 days maximum. Which means he can expect an interview with her, around, oh, Thanksgiving!

Hey, what a great gift for Chris Wallace! If she is ready for him earlier than that, she can be his featured interview on his pre-Thanksgiving show! Happy Thanksgiving Chris! We're with you buddy.

Oh, that's after Election Day isn't it? Well, what can I say, she still would be ten times faster than Obama!

(I really, really love writing a blog column. You can be incisive, divisive, ironic, sarcastic, and caustic all at once. What a hoot!)

There is one issue that came up during the Wallace pre-game show that should have been developed more but unfortunately Wallace really came up short, that being the so-called Troopergate issue.

The heart of this issue is that Gov. Palin's former brother-in-law, an Alaska State Trooper, went through a vicious divorce from the governor's sister. In the course of the proceedings allegations surfaced that the trooper used a taser on his 10-year-old stepson, that he threatened to kill the Governor's father, and that he drank on the job.

That has morphed in the world of Alaska's partisan politics to a claim that the Governor tried to force her Department of Public Safety commissioner to fire the trooper, and when he wouldn't, she fired the department head in retaliation.

Now, the former department head says she actually never did tell him to fire the trooper, but he "felt pressure," whatever the hell that means.

But let's go back to the original allegations. The trooper admitted that he used a taser ON A 10-YEAR-OLD-KID! What part of the rules and regulations governing use of a taser came into play when a little kid was involved? Was this full grown trooper threatened, did the kid pose a hazard to public safety? Nope, none of the above.

This cop sent thousands of volts of electricity through a child's body, using a device that has been known to cause cardiac arrest in full-grown adults, and we are arguing about Alaska's ex-Commissioner of Public Safety saying he "felt pressure!?" Is the world completely upside down in Washington, D.C.?

He tased a kid! And an internal investigation found that he indeed threatened to kill the Governor's father! Enough said. Fire his ass!

And I noticed that while the allegation about alcohol was that he drove after drinking, the trooper responded that he never had alcohol in his cruiser! And no one thought to ask him what he was doing when he was outside the cruiser? Did he ever drink on his lunch or dinner break? Did he have a favorite road house somewhere out on his rounds where he would stop for a nip?

I can't believe that no one thought to ask those questions.

Columnist Bill Kristol made a very good point on the FNS panel discussion today when remarking that the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers - that's print media, the dinosaurs of modern journalism - sent scores of reporters to Alaska for a few days to report back that they found five people who don't like Gov. Palin.

Meanwhile, however, Kristol noted that 80 percent of the voters in the state do like her. His point, that the residents who voted her into office twice as mayor and promoted her to Governor probably know more about her than a handful of biased reporters working for two of the most distrusted news outlets in America, is well taken. Kristol didn't say that last part about bias and distrust - I did.

So I'm supposed to trust the reporting of two newspapers that still brag about knocking off Richard Nixon and setting up the fall of Saigon and the slaughter of millions of Southeast Asians by the communists?

Yeah, credibility. That's the first word that comes to mind when I think of the Times - which has a communist for a publisher, and the Post, home of that other guy who keeps writing books trying to knock off GOP presidents but not Democratic presidents. First-rate balanced journalism from those two outlets, that's for sure.

I also agreed, almost, with Brit Hume when he said one reason the Palin-Gibson interview went so well for her was that the ABC camera crew made Gibson look like he was overbearing and condescending, which helped her immensely,

Actually, I think Gibson came across as an effete, pseudo-intellectual twit, because he is an effete, pseudo-intellectual twit, not because of what the camera crews did. It showed to perfection when Gibson tried to look down his nose at Palin and indicated she didn't understand the so-called "Bush Doctrine," when it was Gibson himself who was wrong.

Remember that adage that lawyers should never ask a question in court if they don't already know the answer? Same goes for leftist propagandists posing as "journalists."

One last thing. Obama's camp supposedly has changed tactics away from criticizing Gov. Palin, which has gained him nothing, in favor of criticizing Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee. Obama started out the new strategy with a commercial laughing at McCain because he doesn't use a computer to send out emails.

Obama omitted mentioning that McCain can't use a computer keyboard because of damage done to his hands and arms by the North Vietnamese when McCain endured years of torture as a Prisoner of War. McCain can't do jumping jacks either, because the communists ripped his arms out of his shoulder sockets. But that's not relevant to his abilities as president, at least not in my book.

Anyway, even while suffering another major gaffe, which is being ignored by the Times and Post, go figure, BO's people are all over the Internet questioning Gov. Palin's vist to the Iraq War Theater a couple years ago. Prior to the Surge when all of Iraq was aflame with violence, Gov. Palin went to the war zone to meet with troops and get an update on the war.

News reports say Palin stopped in Kuwait where troops were stationed, and went to an outpost on the Iraqi border. When she finished her inspection, Gov. Palin visited wounded troops in Germany.

Obama's people say the outpost wasn't actually inside Iraq, it was on the Kuwait side of an imaginary line in the desert, therefore she is a liar.

Barack, did anyone ever tell you that an Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal is awarded to troops who go into the theater, which also includes Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, but may not actually be inside Iraq? Same goes for the Vietnam War, Korean War, and WWII.

At least she went, and this was way before Iraq was declared safe or before she was well-known on the national scene. And Gov. Palin visited wounded troops because it was the right thing to do, not because she was plotting her ascendancy on the national political scene.

Yet, the Democratic heir apparent, who refused for years to go to Iraq until the Surge was complete and Al Qaeda vanquished, then lounged in the Baghdad Green Zone with reporters and celebrities when he finally did go, has the audacity to mock the Governor?

And let's not forget that Obama refused to visit wounded troops when he couldn't take the media along. Yet, his camp is using this as a campaign issue?

It figures. Tell me again, this guy is running for president ... Why?