Did you watch the debate tonight? I did. I watched it on CNN’s HD channel and got to see six analyst scorecards on the side of my screen scoring the “fight.” Five out of six thought Biden had more positive points than Palin. I was also emailing back and forth with my buddy who is involved with the Obama campaign throughout and followed the live blogging on both the NYT site and Andrew Sullivan’s site. Surround sound!
Overall, I agree with everyone’s (i.e. NYT, MSNBC, Andrew Sullivan, NYT and CNN) reaction. Palin did a decent job. Biden did a better one.
There were no game changers tonight. Overall, Biden did not make any gaffes and had the emotional moment of the evening when he choked up about being a single parent. Palin helped herself more than John McCain. While no Republican now wants to kick her off the ticket, she definitely did not convince America that McCain is the better choice than Obama. In fact, everyone will be talking about the bailout tomorrow and not even this debate. Not good for McCain’s chances.
Election Day is now almost one month away and one cool election related web site is FiveThirtyEight which is run by Nate Silver, a super stats guru. 538 equals the number of electoral votes that are up for grabs and right now Nate is calling it 331 – 206 for Obama.
I think the best moment of the night was when Biden schooled Palin on the Constitution. He gave her the “Article One Smackdown” and invoked the dreaded word “Cheney” when the Veep question came up which really will resonate with a lot of people. Her response was wishy washy. Biden’s was fast and firm.