The debate

My friend Tameshia came down this morning and wanted to talk about the debate. She is a liberal and not surprisingly Palin annoyed her and she thought Biden won handily. I on the other hand, thought Palin gave a folksy, reassuring performance. It's funny how one's political lens really does influence how we see things in real life.

So admitting my bias and the fact that I was rooting for Palin to have a good night here are my initial thoughts. I thought Biden was strong, intelligent, gracious and presidential. But he was also irrelevant as every one watching the debate wanted to see how Palin would handle herself. He could have showed up naked and nobody would have noticed as Sarah Palin was the story. The public wanted to know if it was going to be the Palin from the convention or Palin from the Katie Couric interview. Thankfully for Republicans it was a return to the convention mostly.

Yes she was a little weak on substance sometimes and didn't answer every single question head on but that really wasn't her job. Many pundits thought her goal was to demonstrate again to the public that she is a credible leader who could take over the presidency if McCain dies. In fact, there was a question on that very topic. Instead she saw her goal as connecting to what you might call "middle American voters" with her charm and use of common vernacular. She didn't try to come off as a policy expert but instead ran as an outsider against an unpopular Washington DC culture and I think it worked fairly well.

Scoring debates is always hard because voters are unpredictable. Al Gore bashed Bush in their first debate but lost votes because he sighed a lot. To use a betting term, my gut tells me that Biden may well have scored more points last night but as the underdog she covered the spread. And as those who gamble know, covering the spread is what wins the money.