VP Debate TiVo-blogged

Mostly stream of thought commentary:

She talks to the camera like the TV weathergirl she is. Biden talks to Gwen and Palin and the cameras. He seems more natural, but she’s very telegenic when staring right into the camera.

Biden's on his facts very well. Surprisingly concise, for him.

She's better with a script.

She has figured out the format compared to the interviews – ignore the question and say what you want to say. Irritating and I think it may turn people off. But it keeps her on safe turf where she is less likely to embarrass herself.

I have ADD. TV is too slow for me. Can I watch this at double speed?

“I’m new at this.” Good line: disarming.

McCain=Bush. Biden makes the linkage effectively.

She is charming. I hate her more for it.

Being gay is a “choice.” Palin has slipped that dog-whistle shout-out to the christianists a couple times now. I suspect that nobody in the middle noticed.

Biden is hitting McCain hard. He’s not attacking her directly at all. Counterpunching nicely, and not bullying.

She glories in her ignorance. Annoying.

She's playing not to lose. No gaffes. Not to embarrass herself. By that metric, she's succeeding. But she's not playing to win, so I don't think she can win, other than if graded on a curve.

They both have sons in Iraq. Convenient how that trump card is neutralized.

“Nukular.” Kill me now. How is it that she can pronounce Ahmadinejad and not nuclear?

She’s surpassing expectations. She’s still losing.

Ifill sucks. No follow-ups. Katie Couric may be the biggest winner tonight?

Sick of the Israel love-fest. Yes, we all love our cuddly Hebrew friends. Can we stop trying to one-up each other on it?

“Past is Prologue” – best line so far.

She is really just reciting talking points. She’s doing a good job at it, but it’s clearly pre-scripted responses. (That occasionally bear reference to the question.)

I think she had too much coffee. She seems kinda wired.

General McClellan? Wrong war, I think.

Biden is a better debater than Obama. Sadly, it seems the same might be said for Palin with regard to her running mate.

“Facts matter.” Nice line, Joe.

If you have to keep telling people you’re a maverick, you’re not.

“Say it ain’t so, Joe” Nice line.

Um, what authority does the constitution give the VP in the senate again? Sarah Palin apparently has unsuspected skills as a constitutional scholar. Biden took her to school on that.

“Cheney is the most dangerous VP in history.” Body blow.

“American Exceptionalism.” I’m not sure that means what she think it means.

Holy crap. She’s a bitch. Biden chokes up, and she just rides right over it. Classless.

Biden finally called bullshit on the Maverick meme.

Apparently Palin’s never had to change her mind on anything. Good for her.

She likes questions without the filter of the MSM, because she can ignore the question and not humiliate herself by being called on her ignorance.

Summary: Biden won on points. Not even close, but no knock-out. Still, she stopped the bleeding, didn’t give SNL any fresh fodder, and redeemed herself a bit. We all wanted to see the trainwreck, and she didn’t oblige. So there’s no game-changer. Had she imploded, this might have turned the polls more decisively against the McCain ticket. This debate won’t help the ticket, I think, but it won’t hurt them either, which is maybe the best they could have hoped for.

If I can abuse a metaphor from the last debate: Palin achieved her tactical goal in that she exceeded expectations. However, Biden probably had the strategic victory in that he presented himself as a more credible governing partner for his running mate.

[Update: NBC’s post-speech analysis: Peggy Noonan and Rep Governor Swift (both GOP advocates) with NPR’s Nichelle Norris. Fair AND Balanced! I see the right-wing’s anti-Olbermann backlash has borne fruit.]