8:10 PM: Notable that Palin is looking at the camera while Biden is looking off camera — reverse of the McCain/Obama match.

8:12 PM: Hey Biden — it wasn’t deregulation

8:13 PM: Excellent response from Palin RE taxes & who raises them.

8:15 PM: Palin never did directly address the deregulation charge — a mistake. Hopefully she’ll get it in later.

8:17 PM: Biden says 95% will get a tax cut — presumably that includes the 40% who already don’t pay any….

8:19 PM: Biden: “We don’t call that ‘redistribution’, we call that ‘fairness’”.

8:21 PM: Hey Biden – the question wasn’t which of your opponent’s promises you weren’t going to implement — it was which of YOUR promises you wouldn’t implement

8:22 PM: Biden finally found the camera. Oops, nevermind.

8:23 PM: Palin has a bad tendency to answer questions that weren’t asked. Respond to the question posed.

8:24 PM: Palin just pointed out that she hasn’t said promised much in five weeks…??? Then named some specifics.

8:25 PM: Biden — No, Palin did NOT impose a “windfall profits” tax in Alaska. The people have oil rights that were being withheld through corruption in government. She fixed the corruption and put the taxes back up to a normal rate.

8:28 PM: Biden — When Obama and I voted opposite sides of a bill, it was glass half empty/glass half full.

8:31 PM: Palin — climate change is real, not necessarily man-made. Encourages “clean[ing] up this planet”. First gov to form an environmental cabinet. Need an “all of the above approach”.

8:32 PM: Biden — global warming man made or not is “THE fundamental difference” between Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin. Global warming is “absolutely” caused by man. If we drill, it’ll take ten years before we see one drop of that. [Yes, but you've been saying that since the 80s....]

8:35 PM: Palin: “…Barack Obama and Senator O’Biden…” Heh.

8:35 PM: Palin supports capping carbon emissions

8:36 PM: Biden: The Constitution says that gay partners should have visitation rights in hospitals…. Huh?

8:38 PM: Palin: “Straight up, I do not support defining marriage as anything but between one man and one woman.”
Biden: Neither he nor Obama support gay marriage.
Does Palin agree with them? Yes.

[Update: Biden was playing semantic games here -- I'll try to find the exact quote again, but in essence, he does support it, but would use a word other than "marriage".]

8:40 PM: Palin cites Biden calling out Obama on the war — good.
Palin nailed it on the war. “It would be a travesty if we were to quit now in Iraq.”

8:41 PM: Biden: On Iraq, Obama will do exactly what Bush is doing. Heh.

8:42 PM: Biden: “A fundamental difference… with John McCain there is no end to this war.”

8:43 PM: Palin: “We’ll know when we’re finished in Iraq when the Iraqi govt. can govern its people and when the Iraqi security forces can [protect their people].”

8:44 PM: Biden: McCain voted against funding the troops because it included a timeline. [Well... yeah.]

8:47 PM: Biden knows where Bin Laden is.

8:47 PM: Palin: Ahmadinejad “is not sane or stable”

8:49 PM: Palin: Sitting down with Ahmadinejad “beyond bad judgement”

8:50 PM: Biden: Obama did not say he would sit down with Ahmadinejad.

8:51 PM: Biden, Dude, diplomats meeting is waaaay different than presidents meeting. If the president meets with you, he gives you legitimacy.

8:53 PM: Biden: “Noone in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden” (referring to himself in the third person)

8:53 PM: Apparently Obama and Biden predicted pretty much every single power shift in the entire Middle East.

8:54 PM: Palin is happy that she and Biden both love Israel

8:55 PM: Palin: “There have been huge blunders in this administration… as there are in every administration.”

8:56 PM: Biden is trying to paint McCain with a Bush-colored brush. “We will make a significant change…” (but no specifics)

8:57 PM: Palin can pronounce Ahmadinejad, but is having trouble with “Kim Jong Il”???

8:58 PM: Hey, Biden found the camera again.

8:59 PM: As Biden talks about all we did wrong in Afghanistan, this blogger’s wife points out we _did_ in Afghanistan what Democrats say we _should_ have done in Iraq. We pulled a lot of troops out of Afghanistan, while surging in Iraq. Now Biden presses that our commanding general says we should have had more troops in Afghanistan. Heh.

9:01 PM: Biden: “The American people have a stomach for success.” Yeah but Democrats don’t….

9:03 PM: Biden: “I don’t have a stomach for Genocide when it comes to Darfur.” …but apparently it’s okay in other places?

9:03 PM: Palin invokes John Kerry, saying Biden was “for [the war] before [he] was against it”

9:07 PM: Palin: McCain “will know how to win a war”

9:08 PM: Question regarding the VP being “a heartbeat away” from the Presidency. Hmmm… at whom was that targeted?

9:09 PM: Palin responds — mentioning ANWR: “[McCain] has never asked me to check my opinions at the door.” (She and McCain disagree on drilling in ANWR.)

9:10 PM: Biden plugs Home Depot. Also, Biden likes to run down lists of talking points. He’s done it on several questions.

9:11 PM: Palin: “Joe, there you go again…” She saw it too. Heh.

9:12 PM: Palin has winked twice recently — once at the camera and once at her dad in the audience.

9:14 PM: Palin is BIG on pushing energy independence.

9:14 PM: Biden: “On education I don’t know any program that John [McCain] is supporting.” Cool. I like the idea of fewer federal programs….

9:17 PM: Biden: “Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president … in America’s history”

9:18 PM: In hindsight, you could’ve made a good drinking game out of all the times Palin mentions “energy independence”

9:20 PM: Now it’s Biden answering questions that haven’t been asked. Here’s yet another talking point list, and a schpiel about his wife & family… responding to a question regarding charges that he’s undisciplined…?

9:22 PM: Palin is knocking her own party in (eventually) getting to McCain as “Maverick”

9:23 PM: Hey, Biden — Yes, McCain was a “maverick” on the war — he called for the surge before anyone else supported it. He was dead on.

9:25 PM: Biden crows of leading the charge against nominating Bork for the Supreme Court

9:27 PM: Biden says he never questions the motives of those he disagrees with — he questions their judgment.

9:28 PM: Palin has several times said (in various ways) that she respects Biden.

9:29 PM: Palin: I like to be able to answer questions without the filter of the mainstream media. Nice! / Palin has invoked Reagan more than once. / Palin has invoked the “middle class” several times.

9:30 PM: Palin and Biden either like each other, or are trying to out-polite each other. Smiles all around.

9:32 PM: Despite preemptive charges of bias, I believe the moderator did a good job. (She has written a book praising Obama — to be released on inauguration day)

9:34 PM: Here comes Palin’s entire family

Summary: Overall I think they both did pretty well. Palin had a bit of a slow start — she was visibly nervous, but reined it in fairly well. Biden was consistent overall, which bested Palin at the beginning, but fell behind as she found her stride. Overall I would have to say she won — especially as she was stronger at the end, which is more of what people will take away with them.

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