(1.) Senator Joseph Biden – He left himself open to schwerpunkt many times, but, Palin either stuck him with a jab, or played nice (such as the question about Achilles’ Heels — Gov. Palin was given the opening shot, and instead of hammering Sen. Biden as she could have, instead, lightened the mood by adding a good does of humour). While the jabs worked, a good stiff cross or uppercut would have basically landed her the debate. Biden, in my view of the debate, kept attacking President Bush and the Administration as if he were still running for President. He rarely mentioned Obama’s name, and on many hot topics, rather than quoting or spelling out what Obama believed, injected his own beliefs. This debate for Sen. Biden’s part, seemed more like him runing for President than his support for Obama (it reminded me a LOT of Jack Kemp’s performance in the debate against then Veep Al Gore: Gore came across as more like the man wanting the #2 spot, where Kemp seemed more like he was running for President against Dole at the time; Sen. Biden did the almost identical here with this debate). Further, he not only misquoted or misspoke about certain things, he FLAT OUT LIED, most glaringly — just as Obama himself did a week ago, with McCain hammering him on that point — when he stated that Barack Obama never said he’d meet with Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Sen. Biden came across as rather folksy, friendly, and passionate, and though I disagree with him diametrically on his positions, he seems really to believe in them., but on other issues he showed a lot of pompusness.

(2.) Governor Sarah Palin – I basically think she was way too nice to Senator Biden. When he flat-out said that Sen. Obama never said he’d meet with Ahmadinejad without preconditions, I felt like Gov. Palin should have HAMMERED HIM….buit she didn’t. Wheras McCain took Obama to task and on issue with that point, Gov. Palin let it fly. While the Governor did do a good job of jabbing at Biden, jabbing at his voting record, there were times where the honorable Senator from Delaware left himself wide open for the verbal equivalent of a knockout blow. One such point was where Sen. Biden talked aobut how he was proud that he’d voted agaisnt Robert Bork for the Supreme Court. I felt like Gov. Palin should have come back, stating Bork’s qualifications both as a lawyer and a lower-court judge, relating how Bork was (and still is) a strict constitutionalist, not a reformer like a lot of past justices have been. This was just one of a number of instances where Gov. Palin could have floored Sen. Biden, but didn’t for one reason or another.

As I mentioned above, I don’t believe anybody realyl “won” this debate. The way I saw things, Sen. Biden was incorrect on many points, most namely on Obama’s Foreign Policy issues, and on the tax and economic issues. My opinion of the event was that Sen. Biden was makign the case more for his own presidential campaign than Obama’s. However, he did come off as passioned, more folksy than I wuld have guessed, and poised.

Governor Palin did a great job, too, by making herself to be just herself. She showed that she is able to relate to middle America, and was far more down-home than Sen. Biden. Gov. Palin also showed that she can fight back whedn criticised or when her running mate was criticised, getting in a number of good, strong shots on Biden. She showed that she is experienced in the number of times that she referenced her own career as an executive both in the private sector and in government. Further, what I found utterly interesting, is that Sen. Biden NEVER ONCE touched her on her experience. forwhatever reason, his lack of hitting her hard on her experience made Gov. Palin look his equal.

Overall, as I stated above, nobody won, however, I feel like Gov. Palin scored more points, and came off extremely well. If she did anything, she showed herself easily an equal to Sen. Biden (and in that she didn’t upper-cut his gaffes, showed restraint and great strength of character).

All in all a good debate, and I believe that this will help McCain more than hinder him….

Ifill did fine – she didn’t laugh out loud at Palin’s non-answers. Biden mentioning “that country north of Israel”.

Spare us. You had made up your mind before this debate began.

As for “okie doke, dagnabit sound bites”, elitist much?

She didn’t smirk at Palin’s okie dokie, dagnamit sound bites.

You people should give Ifill a medal.

Gwen did fine, leave her alone guys.

Bullschmidt.

Notice how Gwen Awful didn’t ask anything about guns, abortion, or energy independence – all subjects Sarah! coulda knocked outa the park

Instead, we get a non-issue like gay marriage, yawn.

Nope, no bias here, move along.

The Ghost Writer’s cut for her book is off-the-top: he must be paid before she gets a penny.