Well, colour me surprised.

Considering that the Palin was not answering any questions asked, but lying through her teeth about Obama's platform and taxes no matter what the question was, I'd say that the 21 percent who thought she won were not watching the debate.

"And also ..." she said that about two dozen times in each sentence.  This happens W H E N Y O U M E M O R I Z E  your answers.  OK, now we can stop hyperventilating that she was somehow going to stanch the McCain bleeding.

Of course it gave Biden the edge. I was watching on PBS and when David Brooks initiated the post-debate roundup by singing Palin's praises, my wife and I sat there on the couch, dumbstruck with disbelief and wondering whether Brooks had been watching a different debate. I don't even agree with Crowley's assessment. She *was* an embarrassment, spewing talking points animatronically and changing the topic swiftly whenever a difficult question arose. Ick. Yuck. If it turns out most viewers had a favorable impression of Palin's performance, then the McCain campaign should send Katie Couric a gosh dern heckuva bouquet of gratitude. But I'm guessing Brooks is wrong. I'm guessing most viewers will not be favorably impressed.

She's a weirdo, a goof, a travesty. Let's hope the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians don't see this. What is wrong with this country? The country is in the midst of a profound financial meltdown, and she's mugging to the camera, channeling Rush Limbaugh. She's pure Phyllis Schlafly.

But John King also prefaced those poll numbers saying that both with last week's and tonight's debates the vast majority of people watching were Democrats.  Can you, with good conscience, use poll numbers that are decidedly skewed towards Dems?  

I am encouraged by the initial polling results, and I hope they hold. I was concerned that she came across too well and people would not notice the questions she dodged and the talking points that didn't actually stick to Obama/Biden.

cal80,

One question: What have the polls taken since the first debate shown?  

Cal, except that last week's numbers turned out to be accurate.

Any way, you're right.  The Palin won; she massacred Biden; Obama is in Meltdown and McCain is ascendant.  Great.  Your insight is now officially more penetrating than Teppies.

As I said, it is comments like this that make people think you're a plant.

What were the Republicans doing? Covering their eyes and cringing? Watching the baseball playoffs because the election race is going so badly?

We've seen this movie in Minnesota. It's called Jesse Ventura. A humorless white trash populist, arrogant and self-confident, with a derisive grin on their face whenever challenged. A very scary movie.

A bit like "Idiocracy", wasn't it?

The vast majority of CBS undecides were Democrats Cal? Unless they were lying about being undecides, I don't buy that.

Also, it wasn't vast majority last week in CNN last week, just somewhat more than the population at large.

It is not what I said, it is what King said.  The insta poll numbers are based on viewers, and viewers were overwhelmingly Dems.  So what does that really mean?  He said that they were biased towards Dems.

On the poll numbers following the McCain/Obama debate, that is a different story.  The big  one was that the economy tanked (and it will continue to tank regardless of whether we have a bailout or not).  That will hurt the Republicans and those polls reflect that.  I don't think you can read the debate into the polls that have come out in the last week--that is all economic bad news for McCain.  And Palin can't fix that.

Any way, at the rate the registrations are going, the vast majority of voters *will* be Democrats soon ;-) ...

icarusr,

Following cal80 tonight, I'm even more convinced he/she is a plant. My favorite of his/her posts tonight. "Is it just me, or did Biden look tired?" That phrase "is it just me" has got to be among the most disingenuous phrases in colloquial English, and therefore one of the most popular phrases with spin-sters.

You know, considering how invisible Biden has been for the last few weeks (by comparison to Plain), might this not serve as a reintroduction for him on the national stage? (Yes, he's been there for years, but I talking about the kind of people who are only now paying attention to the election.)

Nippers - for me, it was the "my Obama supporter daughter thinks Palin did well" or some such thing.  Possible, but unlikely.

Any way, Cal, here are two Repugs for you, courtesy of ABC news:

"Torie Clarke, who worked with McCain back in Arizona and with the Bush Administration's Department of Defense, had the following remarks on ABC:

"I'm so surprised at what we are talking about before and after the debate. Before the debate the speculation was all on Sarah Palin, how well can she do, can she answer the tough questions? Nobody was paying attention to Joe Biden. I think Joe Biden had his best night tonight. He came with one mission, and that was to go after John McCain, and he did it, backed up by facts. I think he did a better job tonight of tying McCain to the Bush administration than Obama did last week.

Matthew Dowd, who worked for George Bush's communications team while in the White House, followed Clarke and he too agreed that the Delaware Democrat took the evening.

"I think, you know, I agree with her on this. I think Sarah Palin did reasonably well. The death spiral she has been on for the last week, she survived. She's lived another day. She did well. But I think, when the polls come out in the next two, three days, Joe Biden won this debate.""

I think Torie Clarke is right here. Biden tied McCain to Bush over and over, successfully. Palin's attacks on Obama were mainly false or distorted claims about taxes which Biden countered very effectively by stating clearly stating Obama's plan, and by pointing out how many times McCain "voted to raise taxes" according to the bogus standard they used.

A little while ago I turned to CNN and caught a bit of it with their little knob lines. Fascinating stuff. There was a sharp negative turn (women only) when Palin corrected Biden by saying it was "drill, baby, drill". Plus a general upward trend on one of her long digressions from the topic of the question into energy.

Cal80, if you are a plant, are you a potted plant or one growing "free range"?

I gotta agree with you Jeff.  I think Palin was a football team that got burned for 500 yards passing a week before, and decided to put in 7 DBs all day.  Once Biden found his footing vis a vis debating a Woman, all he did was run it up the gut vs. McCain because he knew she couldn't change her game plan.  By the end of it, he was getting 7 or 8 yards a carry, and heading for a touchdown.  The Financial Crisis crystallized the electorate into looking for serious messages and serious solutions.  Obama and Biden provide them in their 3 yards, cloud of dust campaign and debate style.  McCain/Palin's arcade style constant hail marying scares the hell out of them.  

I need to find out how football works so I can understand the analogies and play along. Because I love me analogies.

For example, you know how Sarah Palin LOVES to bring up the "stinking corpse" line? Well the true stinking corpse here is the albatross of deregulation that Joe Biden successfully hung around McCain's neck tonight. He was teh awesome.

psantillana said:

_______

you know how Sarah Palin LOVES to bring up the "stinking corpse" line? Well the true stinking corpse here is the albatross of deregulation that Joe Biden successfully hung around McCain's neck tonight. He was teh awesome.

++++++

psantillana, I agree. And I would advise Ms. Wasilla to avoid making reference to "stinking corpses" of any kind.  Because, in that regard, McCain himself is just one heartbeat away.

The House votes on the bailout bill today , leaders appear optimistic it wil pass. Asked to name the