Debate - My Take (and a little more)

Of course C and I watched and while we did, I was playing a Palin drinking game. I was drinking every time I heard "maverick", "you betcha", any time she substituted "ya" for "you". My overall impression was that she looked like she belonged up there and that was what she needed to do. No real gaffes, no goofs. As for Biden, of course his substance resonated more with me, but his goal was to be concise and not sexist, which he also accomplished. As was obvious by watching CNN and Fox afterwards, both sides thought their person was great and won. Some other thoughts:

1) I found it strange that she asked if she could call him Joe, but never did. What was the point of that?

2) I thought her winking at the camera was a bit much.

3) I hate when lawmakers get into Congress-speak, which Joe did, and when they mention other lawmakers by name and add the "my good friend", "my dear friend:, etc.
I also hate how they all talk about all the bills they have written. It's amazing how they all write all these bills, but none of them ever seem to get passed into law. They always forget to mention that part. Whenever they get into this, I just tune out.

4) I was surprised that none of the pundits, experts, hosts that I watched mentioned that Joe almost broke down talking about his dead/injured children. It was very obvious. I was watching CNN and they had these reaction meters with men and women voters in Ohio and during that portion, the women reaction was off the chart.

5) Perhaps it was my bias, but Joe was better at obviously not answering questions than she was. Perhaps that is just an experience thing. I was interested to see how each would answer what I thought was just a stupid question, about what their achilles heal was. Joe at least, through humor, acknowledged what Ifill mentioned about him, but only with a sentence or 2. Palin, as I had expected, didn't even come close to answering it.

6) The after debate talk was the usual - not sure what the point of watching it is. I guess on the very rare chance that someone will break ranks. Thankfully C and I will be on the road today to Arkansas, so I won't be able he hear the rightie radio hacks go overboard in their reviews. They'll paint Palin's performance as just below Lincoln or Reagan and paint Joe as the next coming of that loser Ross Perot had as his VP. And I predict that Rush will almost be giddy over her comment about not answering a question and her using the term "main-stream media". If you actually read the transcript of her not answering the question remark, she mangles the sentence, but you get the idea of what she was trying to say.

Bottom line: much more entertaining than McCain-Obama I, no gaffes, lots of statements to fact-check.