Updated: Sarah Palin closes in on the White House

USA Today's On Politics blog explains its headline thusly: "Geographically, that is." The Congress Team goes on to say:

The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee will be a mere seven blocks from President Obama's residence when she appears tonight at the winter dinner of the Gridiron Club, a 124-year-old organization of Washington political scribes. The club's dinner annually pairs one Republican and one Democrat to deliver what are supposed to be funny speeches before a cozy audience of political writers and spouses or dates. It's a forum where Washington's judges of political horseflesh can yuck it up with favorite news sources or check out up-and-coming talent. A couple of years back, a fresh-faced young senator named Barack Obama was the Democratic speaker.

The Gridiron Club is allowing media types to chirp to their Twitter pages from the event, and USA Today's Susan Page is already tweeting here, CNN's John King here and TIME's Karen Tumulty here.

Updates: Some one-liners from Sarah Palin's speech (Culled from tweets by King, Page and Tumulty):

Palin said if GOP ticket had won last year, she would be veep and Biden would be "selling his book, Going Rogaine."

Palin tells gridiron she loves her hotel room in DC: "I could see the russian embassy"

Palin takes a shot at steve schmidt, "if I ever need a bald campaign mgr,it appears all I am left w is james carville."

Palin joke in speech re book travels : "the view is so much better from inside the bus than under it."

Palin said she was addressing "leading journalists and intellectuals, or as I put it, a death panel."

Palin said "sometimes you've got to trust your instincts and when you don't, you end up in places like this "

Palin jokes big announcement: "tomorrow I am going to Iowa ......noon to 3p at barnes & noble "

Palin tells gridiron that in dc "I went out for a jog. Or as newsweek calls it--a photo shoot."

Palin at gridiron jokes normally dem speaker next but: "McCain campaign staff asked if they could have that time for rebuttal."

Palin's parents show up unexpectedly at gridiron. She says, "don't treat them like the ... Salahis".

Palin jokes book title debate included "the audacity of the north slope."

More from the AP, Chicago Sun-Times, Wall Street Journal and Politico.

Our fave Saracuda quip of the night:

Palin joked that she was looking at a magazine cover of Obama and Chinese president Hu Jinato during an airplane flight. A nearby passenger stated, “Hu’s the Communist,” she related.

And, Palin said, “I thought he was asking a question.”

Patterico tries to explain the Hu joke to clueless media leftist Andrea Mirtchell, but realizes she's a lost cause.

- JP