Given the debate format and moderator, I am not sure there was any real chance of Palin looking terrible. With no real back and forth, the stage was set for her to recite her talking points and move on to the next question.
I am not saying that Ifill was "in the tank", overcompensating for the criticism she received, but she made almost no effort to get either of them on point. I thought Biden was evasive as well for that matter.
At one point, the moderator asked both of them different questions at the same time. What the hell was that? I lost count after about 60 minutes, but I am sure Biden took the question first significantly more often than Palin. Gwen wasn't looking to stir it up and she achieved that goal.
Palin had looked like a complete idiot for the previous week. The fact that she got out of a debate without going blank was an actual accomplishment for them. Each side will say they won. The McCain camp can rightfully claim a win because she didn't get killed. The hemorrhaging has stopped, but they are still bleeding.
I thought Palin's best line of the night was when she asked Biden if she could call him Joe. It was the first time that I have ever heard her say something that wasn't reversed. I thought it was a really nice moment and showed her human side.
I thought Biden hit a triple with his bridge to nowhere line. He fumbled with its delivery a bit and you can tell from the immediate ad that followed, that they had called that shot before hand. When he got a bit emotional about his family I said to my wife "oh shit he is going to loose it". He came out of the whole thing very well. I couldn't help thinking about what people would have been saying if Hillary was on the ticket and she had a moment like that. I doubt that it would have been spun so positively and many folks would have accused her of faking it.
I really wanted him to take it to her. I was frustrated in the same way that I was in the Obama debate. At one point for just a few minutes can someone lay the smack down on these guys. The Obama folks keep their powder dry and come out looking a little better because of it.
I wonder what wacky thing the McCain folks are going to come up with to shake things up next. They are such Mavericks. What can they do without increasing their negatives and looking desperate.