Mind you, what I am about to say is purely anecdotal. I had to miss last night's debate myself because I was busy using my Bachelor's degree to earn $9/hr stocking shelves at a popular pharmacy chain-- and only that much because it's third shift.
So this isn't about my perspective on the debate, as it's still loading in YouTube.
What I want to talk about is a text message I received at 10.42pm last night, from a dear friend of mine. It was short and most certainly sweet, and it said "Jason is registering to vote!"
Jason, my friend's boyfriend, is a 28-year-old machinist who has never voted in his life. Like his mother before him taught, there just never seemed to be a point; his vote wouldn't matter.
But watching the debate at home last night, foot propped up from a work accident that fractured the bone, he thought so highly of Joe Biden that he's going to register to vote. This more than anything makes me excited to watch for myself.
I'll be the first to admit that I had very little idea who Biden was before the VP pick, and I still have only a vague idea of him outside of his aura of reputation. But to know that a decade-long determinedly non-voting friend saw something in this man to change his mind... that's very powerful to me. That tells me more about the future Vice President than any pundit could.
It's not fear that's going to win the campaign, be it fear of the wider world as McPalin hopes to encourage, or the Obama-leaning fear of having someone like Palin a heartbeat away.
It's going to be the way our ticket inspires people. People who never thought that their vote would matter are starting to care more about making that statement, damn the consequences.
And that's how I know, sight unseen, that Joe Biden won last night's debate.