Personally, Palin did better than I thought she would. That being said, I didn't really expect much to begin with.
She started off insinuating that she wouldn't answer a question if she didn't want to, and set up Biden from the start with her 'Mind if I call you Joe,' so she couldn't wait to use her 'Say it isn't so Joe' zinger. She couldn't answer the questions, she could only spew the rhetoric she was so well coached in. Just an example of how staged it all was and how insincere she is. I did like how most every example she gave of Obama voting the 'wrong' thing Biden would come back with the FACT that McCain voted the exac same way. She never had a rebuttal for it. She kept using he term 'maverick,' but everything that made McCain a maverick he has changed course on to court the conservatives. And if she is so proud of her fighting the oil companies, why does she approved of drilling in ANWR and off shore? THAT is cowing to the oil companies, not fighting them. She didn't look at Biden much, or Gwen, or even at the camera, she had that 'inner' look of someone trying hard to remember something rehearsed in her head. Her views on the war were a stench in my nostrils, but I DID like her a LITTLE better when she spoke of tolerance of same-sex couples. LITTLE, microscopic. Hope it didn't kill her with her fundie religious fanatics that were her main base of support.
I don't think this debate swayed anyone, most have already made up their mind where they stand. I didn't like Biden till I saw him on Meet the Press, (really didn't know much about where he stood and what he though, he is kinda quiet and doesn't have much to say for himself before he was put in the spotlight) but my opinion of him went up expedentally after that, and after this debate I am not sure I don't like him better than Obama himself.
Except for the clean coal and nuclear power thing they support, I do NOT support them there, but that is just me. I am old-school environmentalist and don't like where the movement has gone in the past decade.
Good thing I don't chose my candidate on whether or not I wanna fuck them, wuddn't be ANYONE in the running, yuck. (And I am a bi chic, btw)
Oh, and EXCELLENT post, Bradley. Kudos!