Debates of all ilk

[Ghoulish Delight]

I thought the equal rights for gays question was phrased in favor of Biden. It allowed Biden a "yes, I support their rights," answer instead of having to lead with, "No, I don't support marriage but..." Either way it was clear that Palin stopped short of saying she supported the same rights as Biden did, but posing the question without specifically mentioning marriage played to his favor.

The winking made me cringe, as did "nucular".

She said "O'Biden" once.

I do expect the McCain ticket to get a boost in the polls from this. She more than met the rock-bottom bar of lowered expectations.

The one question that I felt she made the biggest dodge on was on whether Bush's Mid East policy has been a failure. Didn't address it at all.

And in general, though I'm admittedly biased, I don't think Palin successfully sold the, "You're looking to the past while we're looking to the future," line. Biden did an excellent job of selling the view that your choice to vote shouldn't be about who talk tough once the sh*t has hit the fan, it's about the people who have shown that they forsaw the sh*t hitting the fan in the first place and would have tried to prevent it.

How accurate that framing is may be up for debate, but Biden made the case well in this forum.