[Huck]

Rough at the beginning. Let a lot of stuff go on unanswered. Much better as it went on. Great closing remarks. I thought Gwen Ifill did a good job. Biden went after McCain all night. Palin not always able to refute as she should have (for example, Biden said McCain didnt see subprime crisis coming--they've got an ad out touting McCain's 2005 bill which was shot down by dems. it was all over the blogosphere this week. No mention.

Bottom line: weak beginning, kept going back to comfort level issues. stronger as it went on, but not enough effective refutation of Biden's points.

[Kirkwood]

Gov. Palin was on target from the first question. Biden was clearly thrown off for the first 15 minutes. She did an excellent job. A+

[dbwz]

I thought I heard her talking about McCain trying to sound the alarm about the Fannie and Freddie thing. Or was I hallucinating?

[qwertyz]

Right you are—Joe used the traditional debate technique of firing a barrage. And that barrage hit. At the same time, this is typical Joe Biden, and he is not very likeable.

McCain’s got to stop taking hits on health insurance. Palin finally fired back on liberalism’s expensive government solutions—but McCain needs to get more specific, like mandated National Service programs in middle and high schools and taxpayer funded abortions.

[MrChips]

Actually, I disagree. I thought her beginning was strong. I kept praying, “OK, God, she won that 20 minutes, so please give her another 20, and another, and another.” Botton line: maybe not a grand slam, but certainly a home run . . . with a man on base.

[Blowtorch]

Rough at the beginning. Let a lot of stuff go on unanswered. Much better as it went on. Great closing remarks. I thought Gwen Ifill did a good job. Biden went after McCain all night. Palin not always able to refute as she should have (for example, Biden said McCain didnt see subprime crisis coming--they've got an ad out touting McCain's 2005 bill which was shot down by dems. it was all over the blogosphere this week. No mention.

Bottom line: weak beginning, kept going back to comfort level issues. stronger as it went on, but not enough effective refutation of Biden's points. Excellent analysis - she left so many accusations unanswered, but in all honesty Biden knows McCain and his record better than Palin does, so she was at a significant disadvantage in refuting his statements. She did what she could, I just hope it was enough or goodbye capitalism, hello socialism.

[Yardstick]

I thought she was barely adequate. She let way too many of Biden’s points go unanswered. I thought her answers lacked detail and occasionally bordered on platitudinous. I’m amazed in a good way by how well people here thought she did. I was watching PBS and even Mark Shields thought she did pretty well. David Brooks thought she did well. The historians thought she did pretty well though maybe a little folksy. Amazing to me but I’ll take it.

I’ll be interested in seeing Jay Nordlinger’s post-debate pointlets. His perceptions are usually similar to mine.

[GodBlessAmericaKD]

The closing remark was the best thing I have heard in this campaign. About time somebody isn’t afraid to say being an American is a joy.