I must admit that I was surprised how well Palin did in the debate, and I can see her appeal - she's cute and personable. The thing to remember is how personable Bush is, though. Likability can hide many dangerous personality traits.

I'm not sure why Obama picked Biden as his running mate. He's intelligent and well-spoken, but he doesn't exude the aura of change that Obama's tried so hard to project. He seems like a veteran politician which doesn't compete favorably with Palin's "outsider who will clean house" persona.

The best moment of the debate is when Biden got nearly choked up when talking about his child's death. I wanted to stop the debate right there to process the pain I felt for him, and it was disconcerting when Palin picked up and talked on and on as if nothing had happened on the same level as before -- showing she's much more a politician than the everyday person than she wants us to believe.

The Democrat strategy of rolling over for Republican wishes for several years bit Biden in the butt a few times -- like when he had to admit that he voted to give Bush war powers.

I was very disappointed to see that the only "alternatives" to oil given were "safe" nuclear (oxymoron?) and "clean coal" (should be "cleaner coal" since there's no way to mine it cleanly and how clean is pulverizing a mountain to get coal anyway?).

I noticed that Palin resorted to the Republican trick and ego-stroking by telling us that we are exceptional, ideal and a beacon (although she did say not perfect) to the rest of the world. Conservative voters eat that stuff up and it works. It would be nice if we could honestly address issues and do what is necessary to become that beacon, which is hard to do if you already think you're all that.

My opinion: Biden won if you want someone who knows what they are doing. Palin won if you want someone who seems like anyone you might know.

I wanted to post this graphic from DailyKos that was really funny, even though I think Palin should get more credit for her performance last night than this graphic implies.