My intial feeling was that Biden seemed comfortable while Palin seemed to be feeling the pressure to perform. Biden stayed focused on McCain and connecting him to failed policies of the Bush administration, while Palin had several messages: 1) that their ticket was not a lock-step Republican ticket, 2) Obama will ruin the nation through high taxes and weak foreign policy, and 3) that Biden himself has been critical of Obama in the past.

Most of the talking heads thought Palin did well by exceeding everyone's low expectations. But I had slightly higher expectations than most, so I thought her performance was disappointing. Many of her replies were winy, she did not have many effective responses to directly contradict Biden's charges against McCain, and she clearly had scripted talking points that she was going to hit, whether she could find a relevant segue or not. I also found it laughable when she tried to contrast Obama/Biden as long-time Washington insiders with an image of McCain as the fresh face of new ideas and reform. I don't think Americans are that stupid.

And does anyone else find her position on global warming to be incredibly inconsistant? If you don't believe global warming is attributable to human activity (which is an arguable, if tenuous, position), then why would we devote resources to battling it? It's like the guy I saw one time wearing a shirt that said "STOP PLATE TECTONICS." Why give support to policies designed to modify human behavior if global warming is a natural process that occurs beyond the influence of human-environment interactions?

Another answer that I had a huge problem with was Palin's response to what was a belief or position that she has shifted on over the years. Palin refused to name one, claiming she had not had to "compromise" her beliefs. It's annoying that there's not one issue on which her beliefs have evolved, but it is even more troubling that she equated growing, evolving positions with comprosied beliefs. Not considering philosophy on the issues, that is perhaps the number one attitude that I cannot imagine voting for in a potential president.

Palin's one redeeming moment in regard to her debate tatics was in her answer on same-sex marriages. Obviously, Palin and Biden differ greatly in their positions on gay marriage. And she saw that the issue was a landmine for her, so she let Biden first say he did not support gay marriage and then jumped on the opportunity to agree without elaboration, underscoring that Biden had said it first.

Biden, on the other hand, miffed me by categorically denying that the VP should be considered a member of the legislative branch. Most viewers probably don't care about that one, but as a historian and a lover of the New Repulic era, I thought that answer had a ring of shallow historical understanding at best, or partisan politics at worst. Palin gave a better, potentially-nuanced answer, although I suspect from the way she said it that she didn't realize the significance of what she was saying.

Overall, I thought Biden did much more for Obama than Palin did for McCain, and Palin certainly did not convince me she would be a reliable or desirable second-string president.