Originally Posted by abaya

Palin did better than expected, but that's not saying much. Her folksy ("durn right!" "doggone it!") responses drove me up the wall, as did her constant re-steering the debate back to her favorite topics (oil, mavericks, those "bad guys" in Washington, etc)... she completely ignored several of the questions, especially important foreign policy questions that Biden nailed.

She also winked at the friggin' camera. I'm sorry, if you don't want people accusing you of "sexism," then don't act like a barfly. Can you imagine what the response would have been if Biden had winked at all the ladies?

I like Biden much more than I thought I would... he did a great job addressing the issues, and he got appropriately fired up and angry when needed (which Obama has to avoid doing himself, unfortunately), without coming down hard on Palin as a "woman" or whatever. He treated her politely, without needing to wear kid gloves, and that took skill. I also felt like he was much more real/sincere than she was (and this after never hearing him talk before)... when he talked about his family, he convinced me that he meant it. He was honest about the fact that he is now comfortable and has a good salary, but that life was not always that good for him. I appreciated that.

At least they both looked at each other, addressed each other, made eye contact, recognized the other person's presence, etc. Clearly they studied last week's debate and avoided the errors that McCain made there.

I call it for Biden. Palin has yet to impress me, but then again, nothing she or McCain says will make me vote for them, anyway.