Most polls now show that Democratic Sen. Joe Biden beat Republican Gov. Sarah Palin in last night’s Vice Presidential debate. The Kansas City Star reports:
Non-random (unscientific) polls on AOL and MSNBC web sites show Biden winning 48 to 45 and 78.6 to 18.9 respectively.
Randomly selected subjects on three other polls also show Biden winning:
CNN/Opinion Research Biden 51 Palin 36
CBS Biden 46 Palin 21
Fox Biden 61 Palin 39In the CBS poll, of the uncommitted voters, 18% now say they will vote Obama/Biden, 10% now say McCain/Palin.
Post-debate reaction seemed to agree that Governor Palin gave a good account of herself in being able to deliver prepared answers, though often not responsive to the question at hand.
Biden was able to draw on extensive experience from his long experience as a Senator.
The KC Star’s George Harris then writes:
The McCain/Palin ticket will likely drop into attack gear for the remainder of the campaign in a last ditch effort to stop Obama and Biden. I think it’s likely to become really ugly but hope that McCain chooses instead to recover some of his dignity as Palin did in a good effort Thursday night.
Yes. If the pattern holds of political campaigns and what they do when they are falling behind in polling — particularly of the McCain campaign since Labor Day — it’s likely to get quite ugly and persona. The question: given recent events on Wall Street and how late it is now getting in the campaign 2008 game, will these kinds of attacks work?
And two more debates remain between McCain and Obama. Look for McCain to seek to shake the race up to generate a game changer.
Meanwhile, TV pundits were talking about Palin’s performance. NBC Political Director Chuck Todd (who you can see evolving into another solid and authoritative Tim Russert) talks about the seeming-disconnect between the pundits’ verdict and the polls of debate viewers — and what may be going on:
h/t Americablog
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.