CNN's Peter Hamby turns in yet another boffo pool report from the Palin beat, again from Philly.



Seems that a up-on-current-events Temple grad student took advantage of being in the same cheesesteak line with Palin at Tony Luke's to quiz her on Pakistan.



In the process, she undercut McCain's own attacks on Obama for being overly willing to signal U.S. readiness to follow al Qaeda across the border from Afghanistan to Pakistan.



McCain, appearing this morning on ABC's "This Week," bemoaned the new media rules where cheesesteak line conversations become fair game.



"This is a free country but I don’t think most Americans think that was a policy statement," McCain said.



Full Tony Luke's back and forth after the jump, including what has got to be one of the first times the words "Waziristan" and "whiz" have been used in the same story.

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) – Sarah Palin partook in an established political ritual on Saturday night when she headed to Tony Luke's in south Philadelphia to order a pair of cheesesteaks with whiz and onions.



But as the kitchen sizzled and orders were barked out, Palin found herself talking politics, calling McCain's debate performance "awesome" and taking questions from a voter about the hunt for terrorists in Pakistan.



While waiting in line with her daughter Willow to place her order, a reporter asked Palin if she watched Friday's debate, and what her impressions were.



"I did, I did," she said. "McCain did awesome. He was great. He was absolutely on his game."



Palin added that she is ready to debate Joe Biden next Thursday in St. Louis.



"I am," she said. "Look forward to it. Look forward to getting to speak to Americans through that debate, absolutely."



The governor got a more serious interrogation moments later when Temple graduate student Michael Rovito approached her to inquire about Pakistan.



"How about the Pakistan situation?," Rovito asked her. "What's your thoughts about that?"



"In Pakistan?," she asked, looking surprised.



"What's going on over there, like Waziristan?"



"It's working with [Pakistani president] Zardari to make sure that we're all working together to stop the guys from coming in over the border," she told him. "And we'll go from there."



Rovito wasn't finished. "Waziristan is blowing up!," he said.



"Yeah it is," Palin said, "and the economy there is blowing up too."



"So we do cross border, like from Afghanistan to Pakistan you think?," Rovito asked.



"If that's what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should," Palin responded, before moving on to greet other voters.



Palin ordered the two sandwiches, but the managers refused to let her pay, so she slipped a bill into their tip jar. She did not chow down at the restaurant, opting instead to take the food with her in the motorcade.

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