From the Editors
Blogging the Veep Debates: Who Won?
You betcha Sarah Palin can debate says Politico. Millions of Americans watched Thursday night's vice-presidential debate waiting for another serving of raw material for the writers at Saturday Night Live. What they got instead were signs of a Palin rebound. CNN's Political Ticker reports poll results that Biden won 51-36 and a CBS poll of uncommitted voters gives Biden the win 46-21% with 33% saying it was tie. But Palin exceeded expectations and "Joe Biden was no match for Joe Six Pack," writes Peggy Noonan. Not a disaster, says The American Conservative's Eunomia. Gov. Sarah Palin stays alive, says HuffPo. Righty bloggers could not contain their glee: Sarah rocks! (Michelle Malkin); She's the real deal (NRO); She killed. She had him at "Nice to meet you. Hey, can I call you Joe?" (The Astute Bloggers). She changed her image overnight blogs The Daily Standard.
But not everyone was charmed: I always wondered what a wolverine would sound like chewing through plywood. Now I know: like Sarah Palin "debating" Joe Biden, says Howard Fineman in Race to the Finish. If Palin didn't answer all the questions posed to her, at least she didn't tell the moderator that she'd "have to get back to ya," blogs LA Times Campaign '08. By a knockout, Joe Biden was the more effective, better-informed vice presidential candidate Thursday night says Midwest Voices. Joan Walsh of Salon sees 2 moments when Palin blew it badly: her
bizarre statement about being happy that Dick Cheney had expanded the
powers of the vice-presidency, and not softening when Biden choked up
over his family (Biden's best moment, says TPM - catch the video again here). Daily Kos summed it up this way: So who won? Who cares. Nothing happened to change the dynamics of this race. Fivethirtyeight has more poll analysis. Factcheck.org factchecks the debate (spoiler alert: both came up short in the truthiness department). And HuffPo rounds up more analysis left, right and center.
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