VP Debate Thoughts

-Given the dismal black hole of a low bar Sarah Palin had going into this, she did well simply not falling on her face. But while that might help with conservatives, I doubt it had any effect on independents. Joe Biden is as good as he normally is and avoided putting his foot in his mouth. Gwen Ifil did a great job moderating. The pre-debate spin from Republicans that she was in the tank for Obama just seems more absurd now.

-This debate was very similar to the first presidential debate: the Democrat won on the merits, the Republican did better than expected, there were no major gaffes, pundits didn't see it was game-changing, and the insta-polls and focus groups favored Biden. We'll see if there's any effect in the polling in the days to come. However, as Kos noted, the good thing about the insta-polls on what people thought about the debate is that it forces the pundits to adjust their analysis to what people actually thought (in both debates, a Democratic win versus how they called it a tie), which, in turn, affects how people react to the debate in the days to come.

-Most interesting moments included Palin seeming to agree with Biden on gay rights more than evangelicals probably wanted her to sound and when Biden choked up in response to her snide dig about not knowing what it's like to raise a family (this was the best moment of the debate and got the highest response from debate watchers).