Garance Franke-Ruta and Krissah Williams Thompson of WaPo’s The Trail, Friday:

This morning on news sites, the McCain campaign appeared to be in need of a copy editor when it attributed a positive review of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s debate performance last night to a “Famous Person.”The ad — viewable here — couples a photo of a smiling Palin with the quote: “She killed. It was her evening. She was the star. — Famous Person (10/2/08)”

Now, there was one famous person who actually did say that about the GOP vice presidential candidate, though it’s not clear from the campaign’s ad: Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. Who also previously has ripped into Palin’s selection as the vice presidential nominee.

“She killed. It was her evening. She was the star,” said Noonan last night on NBC, according to a round-up of debate reactions posted online by the McCain campaign this morning.

They added Noonan’s name later that day.

Via Radley Balko, who wonders… “was this a harmless error by a McCain campaign techie? Or did the McCain camp send out pre-written quotes to friendly commentators?”