On CBS's "60 Minutes" Thursday night, Republican strategist Steve
Schmidt revealed some of the behind-the-scenes wrangling that went
into Sarah Palin's debate against then-Sen. Joe Biden.

Schmidt says that a campaign staffer prepping Palin made a desperate
call to the chief McCain campaign strategist. "He told us the debate
was going to be a debacle of historic and epic proportions," Schmidt
told Anderson Cooper."She was not focused, not engaged. She was not
really participating in the prep." Schmidt confronted Palin and "she
said, 'You know, I think that's right.'" Schmidt took over the
preparation and said she "more than held her own" in the final debate.

Palin had a reflexive tendency to refer to Biden as "O'Biden," Schmidt
revealed. He says other people on the campaign staff came up with a
solution. "It was multiple people -- and I wasn't one of them-- who
all said at the same time, 'Just say, 'Can I call you Joe?'' which she
did."

In fact, Palin did accidentally call the senator "O'Biden" once during
the debate.


Holy crap, she couldn't even focus enough to get her opponent's name
right.