"...Rachel Maddow, Bill O'Reilly and Fat Albert....Sixes of One...."

Pop quiz.

Name the first insightful and perceptive political analyst that comes to mind.

Got yours?

Here's mine.

Bill Cosby.

Say what?

More on that in a minute.

Everybody's favorite dancing daughter showed up on Leno this week to provide an update on whazzup, 2012 plans wise, with the family Palin.

And like every good teenage single mom with no particular political education, training and/or resume' to provide as credentials, she wasn't a scosche shy about laying out her take on the lay of the presidential landscape.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/15/bristol-palin-mom-has-chance-at-presidency-despite-the-past/#more-167434

Putting aside any obvious observation that getting mature and sensible political perspective from Bristol Palin is like getting mature and sensible relationship perspective from Snooki, here's the "hidden" sticky wicket in this whole scenario.

The ever dissolving line between political and pop culture.

(OLD FART FOGEY ALERT....I am about to use one of those expressions like "was a time", "used to be", et al whose side effects on younger readers/voters might include damage to corneal tissue due to excessive eye rolling)

When I was a kid (you were warned), politicos didn't posture and pontificate on the popular playgrounds.

And pop stars didn't proselytize on matters political.

"Serious" news matters were left to serious news shows.

And "entertainment" celebrities stayed in their own yards.

Now, as we approach the 2012 election of a President of the United States, we have the aforementioned unwed, teenage single daughter attempting trenchant political insight to a former stand up comic turned variety talk show host sandwiched in somewhere amidst the classic comedy schtick of Don Rickles and the savvy song stylings of Colbie Caillet.

"..and tomorrow night....Roseanne drops by to talk about her wacky new reality show "Roseanne's Nuts" and shares her views on the debt ceiling debate.....!!"

Personally, I think Wolf Blitzer would make a wonderfully dry and droll guest host for Jay from time to time, but that's another blog.

Here's the bottom (or center, as the case may be) line.

The blurring of the lines between political commentary and pop culture conversation doesn't serve either entity particularly well and inevitably ends up watering down the quality of either/both.

And a generation of up and coming youth voters who are teething on politics as seen through the knocked up daughter raps with stand up comic viewfinder are just as inevitably going to groove the habit of forming opinions that could affect their, and their kids, lives based on what and who's cool and hip as opposed to what and who's insightful or, dare we dream, inspiring?

All of that said, I refer back to my earlier choice of Bill Cosby as a political pundit.

In one of his classic routines, he observes that it's a mistake to ever "challenge worse".

As in, don't ever say things can't get worse.

Because, as Mr. Cosby correctly observes, worse will take that statement and show you who wears the pants in the family.

So, while I'm comfortable with being in full "tsk-tsk" mode when it comes to ragging on Bristol gettin jiggy with Jay, I going to pull up just short of saying things can't get worse.

There's a whole lotta talk shows out there.

And Michele Bachmann has five kids.