Fortunately for Republicans, Palin's debate wasn't a disaster like the Couric interviews, but they aren't exactly relieved either. The soccer mom Alaskan governor stumbled from time to time, and she nearly killed me when she said "SHOUT OUT to mah third graders, extra credit for those of you watching this!" causing me to violently choke on my steak fajita. Hey CNN, why isn't that Palin quote (it's a great one)in your official transcript? Should be. Onwards..
Firstly, I was impressed with some of the numbers and facts she quoted. Needless to say, her party rigorously coached her and had her memorized key facts about issues that would obviously be asked during the debate. This was apparent when she gave little insight about the Iraq issue then ASKED Ifill if she could talk about Afghanistan, most likely due to the fact that Afghanistan was an area she was rehearsed on and maybe even felt confident discussing.
One thing that bothered me was how her face absolutely lit up whenever she mentioned Pappy McCain, as if by bringing up his name people automatically digest whatever immediately follows, no questions asked. You'd think that McCain was a savior of some sorts judging by her cupid struck facial expression (some people actually do I'm sure). She also glowed when she mentioned her family and/or things/people from Alaska. I understand the campy cuteness and why she'd do that, simply to relate to Joe Average or Suzy Homemaker, but it was unprofessional and almost awkward.
I think Biden might've been a little surprised to see how "well" Palin did overall, it seems to me that he started off real cool and smooth but hit a kink or two towards the end. Towards the end he became more upright and high strung. He began stressing his words and making equally resonating gestures. I have to give Biden credit for making me laugh out loud- I couldn't resist when he said "John McCain said as recently as a couple of weeks ago he wouldn't even sit down with the government of Spain."
Palin was a deer in the headlights during the first part of the debate, lookiing nervous, even scared while she spoke, as if frozen. She joked around a bit, which probably helped her loosen up but I doubt her party appreciates it- in answering whether she supports McCain's health care plan she responds "blah blah..Barack Obama's plan to mandate health care coverage and have universal government run program and unless you're pleased with the way the federal government has been running anything lately, I don't think that it's going to be real pleasing for Americans to consider health care being taken over by the feds." It's like she genuinely doesn't realize her party is the one that's been running and crashing the government these past 8 years. And what's wrong with nationalized health care? Dailykos blogger Michael Moore has a video for you to watch for anyone wondering about American health care.
While searching for the above quote in the transcript, I counted the number of times each candidate says "government," Biden-6, Palin-14. "Government" is generally vague, and this just goes to support the notion of Republicans loading their girl with meaningless phrases and elegant mumbo jumbo.
Overall, I think that some McCain gets to keep some voters that were teetering on the edge of pledging to Obama as a result of last week's debate as well as Palin's disastrous interviews; Palin was mediocre enough tonight to keep some McCain voters from crossing over. On the other hand, other McCain voters saw a polished Palin (a polished turd is still a turd) that was largely full of the same redundant rhetoric.
My conservative guess is that McCain will probably remain stable, give or take a point or two, and Obama will gain 2 maybe 3 points.
edit: as seen below, peagreen pointed out that the third grader's extra credit quote is indeed in cnn's transcript.
but, pretty sure it wasn't before, because I checked multiple times with my housemates [one from France, one from Australia, both watched the debate with me] because they were SO amazed and shocked that a very important American political transcript didn't include everything that took place. We searched the document several times using the find feature, first we used "grader" which came up with nothing, then we did "third" and it came up because Biden said "thirdly," then we did "credit" and that came up several times, but not paired with "extra." Actually, as I recall these searches that I did less than an hour ago, I'm positive it wasn't there before. Whaddayaknow. Anyways, thanks for pointing out CNN's update peagreen, as well as a possible conspiracy :)