Surprise! Joy Behar thinks Gwen Ifill, with her conflict of interest, should step aside from moderating the vice presidential debate. Could it be Joy attempting to establish herself as an independent thinker? Not likely. Joy explained, on the October 2 edition of "The View," that Ifill should not give "Palin’s side any excuse to not step up to the plate."

Earlier in the broadcast, when each panelist posed their hypothetical questions to Senator Biden and Governor Palin, Joy Behar claimed "according to what I [Behar] read" Palin allegedly supported forcing rape victims to pay for their kit due to opposition to the "morning after" pill. Surprisingly, Whoopi Goldberg countered Joy with "it’s not true" and thoroughly explained that Sarah Palin had no say in the rape kit matter.

Also of surprise, changing her position from the previous day, Joy conceded that Sarah Palin is "not dumb" and warned Joe Biden not to underestimate John McCain’s running mate.

Relevant pieces of the transcript follow.

JOY BEHAR: You know, he voted for the war in Iraq without doing due diligence. And then he said he was wrong. How can you trust that you’re going to do due diligence when another situation like that comes up because I don’t agree with what you voted for. And that’s one of the reasons that Hillary Clinton is not the candidate is because she voted for the war. That would be one question. For Miss- Mrs. Palin, aren’t I nice about her today?

[laughter]

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: I’m still waiting.

BEHAR: Governor Palin- well, I would like to know if the story that I read is true that when she was the mayor of Wazilla [sic] there was a law on the books that said that rape victims had to-

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: It was not true-

BEHAR: No, no, no. It is-

GOLDBERG: It’s not true.

BEHAR: It is a fact that is was on the books, that whether she knew about it is another question. That rape victims had to pay for their own rape kit. The reason that she liked it, according to what I’ve read, is that, included in the rape kit was the morning after pill and because she’s so against abortion, she didn’t want them to be encouraged to take the morning after pill. So if they paid for their rape kit, that would discourage them from taking the morning after pill.

GOLDBERG: Here’s, here’s what I’ve been able to ascertain from all of this. She- the fight between who should pay for the rape kit and whether it should be the city or the state or whoever, was actually not between her. It was between two other people. The man who said, who said, "yes we should be paying for this," they do in many other states said "I don’t see how the governor doesn’t know about this. I don’t see how she doesn’t know about it." But the fact of the matter is, they voted for it. They said this is how it’s supposed to be. This isn’t her choice. This was something that was put out there and she, she came in and it was there. This also exists, we should know in about five other states where rape victims pay for their own rape kit, which, you know, the question outside of that really, well is this my fault? Is this my fault that this happened you want me to pay for it?

BEHAR: I think she should clear that up.

GOLDBERG: Yes I think she has.

[...]

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Well, I think people are underestimating Sarah Palin. That’s why I want to hear this woman speak.

BEHAR: Oh, don’t underestimate her. I saw a debate that she had in Alaska and she can be a killer. And she’s very sarcastic also, which she has to watch that.

SHEPHERD: But I think people- and I’ve heard people say oh it’s you know, she’s dumb and she’s this and she’s a bimbo-

BEHAR: She’s as dumb as a fox believe me. [laughter and applause] She’s not so dumb. Just watch out for her.

[...]

BEHAR: Tonight, Gwen Ifill is going to be moderating and there’s some story about how she wrote a book that makes Obama look good. And now she’s the moderator of the debate. And I personally think that they should-she should get out, personally.

[...]

BEHAR: Well, everybody knows she’s an incredible journalist. What I think is- I don’t think they should give her side, Palin’s side, any excuse to not step up to the plate. I don’t want them to say later "oh she said something that didn’t make any sense and that’s because of Gwen Ifill." That’s why I don’t want her to do it.