This has been a beef of mine lately as well and I'm not a huge Reagan fan. People seem to underestimate what Reagan brought to the table when he started his 1980 campaign. He'd been in the national spotlight already since at least 1964 when he gave a very well received speech for Goldwater. He was governor of the largest state in the Union for 8 years. He'd run for President twice already in 1968 and 1976. In 1976 in particular, Reagan just barely lost to Ford in the primaries (1,187 to 1,070) and was arguably the leader of the conservative movement for the 4 years leading up to his victory in 1980. While Palin and Reagan might both be great communicators, Reagan was also a national figure for at least 15 years before winning in 1980. Palin might be able to build up such a track record over time as well, but she doesn't come with it today. People want Palin to be Reagan because they are communicators and governors, but Reagan much more as well.

As far as judging the performances… lots of ways one can do that and she had a good strong delivery and did avoid questions that she couldn't answer and talked about her strength, energy. Many people find her folksy approach likeable…

But it was clear to me that Biden had substance and a great knowledge and command of issues. Biden has been involved in all of these issues, has debated them for years with others and has written legislation on many of them. All Palin could offer was the Cliff Notes version which she got from a two week cram session.

My thoughts, after having watched most of the debate as my poor, pitiful Cubbies got their asses handed to them, is that my view being different was due to one (or more) of a few things.

A. I watched a different debate.
B. The low expectations for Palin are reflected in the opinion she did great.
C. I am a policy wonk-type, more impressed by the grasp of facts (even if a few were twisted by Biden, but hey, this is politics) than by image.
D. My impression of her image during the debate is totally off compared to everyone else. I fully expected every time she talked that she was about to look the camera straight in the eye and shout, “LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!”

I was totally unimpressed, and walked away thinking that those who criticize her as being a lightweight completely lacking in the qualifications for even VP in training, nonetheless President were that to be thrust upon her, have it correct.

As I said yesterday I still support McCain, but hope that he stays healthy and vigorous! I think Palin is someone who could potentially grow into the job, and as a sidekick to McCain I like her well enough (like the reform emphasis and strength on energy policy.)

Now just to be clear though, when I say that Biden won the debate, to me that's NOT the same as saying that I believe he'd make a better president or VP. His experience and knowledge are superior to Palin's, but he did tell some whoppers last night (would that Palin would have been able to counter them) and even when he gets the facts right I strongly disagree with the way he connects the dots and the policies that he and Obama would implement. My explanation of winning the debate then is a technical one- on scoring actual points for support of his ticket's arguments because Palin wasn't up to the task of playing defense.

Both candidates did okay. The universe (liberals, anyway) expected (and hoped) that Palin would fail miserably, and she did not. During the first part of the debate, she did better than Biden. She made one mistake (changing the subject rather than annihilating Biden about something he and Obama want to do: if I heard right, they want to reduce interest rates and _principal_ on outstanding home loans) and in my view was working to recover that superior position after that, and she didn't do this. Once or twice she did what McCain did that I didn't like to hear (or see), repeat typical sound bites in answering questions. She also failed to take Biden apart when Biden argued that progressive taxation is justified due to “fairness.” It is nothing of the kind, and with the size of government Obama and Biden want, it will simply be impossible to tax those over $250,000 and reduce taxes on everyone else. The amount of income that needs to be taxed to support what the Dems want forces them to reach well down into the middle class portion of aggregate income. Biden probably had begun the debate deliberately in a timid or more accurately, careful and conservative manner but loosened up about the time he made the controversial statement about revising loan contracts and Palin didn't demolish it, and him. As Biden loosened up he began to do much bettter. I know everyone was afraid of Biden saying something stupid, but he didn't, he actually did quite well when he became animated, it's probably now worth the risk to “let Biden be Biden” out on the campaign trail and for the media to begin to cover him rather than avoid covering him to conceal his gaffes from the public (so as to continue supporting the Democratic Party this year, same as every other year). Overall, it was a draw. Both candidates did fine. It's a draw because honest people would have to strain to name a winner. Neither candidate stood out immediately as better and neither one did notably better.

As to what most of the talking heads or the public polls have to say, that doesn't matter to me. I'm just here giving my take on it, and that was that Palin surprised me. Perhaps I had just lowered my expectations so much that the shocked me by not falling apart, but I thought she did a little better than Joe. I don't agree with the majority of things she said, but she delivered her message much better than I thought she would.

It is fairly obvious to me and just about everyone else who watched this debate that when it comes to “fair and square” Sarah Palin did NOT win this debate.

You are letting your own bias effect your view on that matter apparently.

In my opinion Biden did a much better job.

I also noted that she said “maverick” twice.

She said it way more than twice. I noted at least 4 occasions during my liveblogging. And one of those times, she mentioned it twice in a single answer.