Only One Gaffe for Biden (Update)

This will just be a short post, but wanted to write down some of my thoughts after having just watched the debate, before I started reading what others thought.

First, I think everyone involved did very well.  Kudos to Gwen Ifill, who I think did an excellent job and was very evenhanded.  I also liked her jab at Biden about having been against clean coal in the past, which he denied.

Senator Biden did very well also, although he seemed a bit too married to Obama talking points.  I got the feeling that most of the answers would have been the same if Obama had been there instead of him.  Of course a vice-presidential candidate will agree with the presidential candidates positions, but it seemed to me that Biden was not saying what he believed, but rather what he knew he was supposed to say.  Ironically, I think he was more stilted and rehearsed sounding than Palin.

The one gaffe of the night was not an obvious one, and probably not a big deal, but as senator for 36 years and an attorney, Biden should know enough about the U.S. Constitution to know that the executive branch is laid out in Article II, not Article I (which concerns the legislative branch).  Other than that, a pretty much gaffe free night.  I don’t remember the question, but there was on instance late in the debate where Biden stammered and had trouble getting a thought out — that was the only instance of that for either candidate all night.  I think it was in response to Palin saying something to the effect that she had a normal family, and thus understood kitchen-table issues; Biden seemed almost angry in trying to retort that he did too.

As for Palin, I think she did everything she needed to do, and I can hear liberal heads exploding everywhere as they try to fit her performance tonight into their narrow view of her.  She seemed a bit nervous at first, talking too fast and with a quaver in her voice, but by time they got to the second question she seemed fine.  She absolutely had the best lines of the night (”Say it ain’t so, Joe! There you go again!”), and kept Biden on the defensive by attacking him with his own record and his own words.  The only time I felt a bit of a cringe coming on was when she repeated, almost verbatim, the talking point about needing reform and praising McCain’s bipartisanship in answer to the bankruptcy/default question that she had used in an earlier answer regarding the bailout.

The verdict? A slam dunk by Palin.  She came across as confident, competent, and not overly rehearsed.  She also maintained the common touch without overplaying it, and displayed that quality of genuineness that had endeared so many to her.

The question now is how independents saw her, and how the media will spin this.

UPDATE:

Just remembering her asking off the bat for permission to call Biden ‘Joe.’  Any takers on a bet that the ’say it ain’t so Joe line’ wasn’t planned?

Also, it appears that I am not the only one to think Palin aced it.  Michelle Malking says, “Sarah Rocks!“  Hopefully this will lift conservatives — and the McCain campaign — out of the doldrums.

ANOTHER UPDATE:

Not surprisingly, there were Biden gaffes that I didn’t catch on the first pass.  The biggest is his discussion of Hezbollah in Lebanon.  I didn’t really know what he was talking about when he said it, but didn’t think much more about it.  But the reason it didn’t ring any bells for me is because it didn’t happen.

No more updates here.  I’ll save other thoughts, etc., on the debate for a more detailed future post.