There was only one purpose to watching the Vice-Presidential debate, to see if Sarah Palin had an SNL moment.  Republican’s held their breath hoping.  Democrats held their breath hoping.  It didn’t happen.  The rest is of no political consequence.  Back to the main event.

The expectations game was the primary driver of the debate.  Most people describe expectations of Sarah Palin as being low.  I saw the opposite.  I saw high expectations, very high indeed.  Not that she would present as a person worthy of the presidency, but that she would come off as the ignorant hick who lost it in the midst of some question that tests basic knowledge.  People expected her to be a disaster.

Palin was not a disaster.  Whether you thought she did well is a very subjective thing, as some were critical of her failure to actually answer questions posed, preferring to rely on coached talking points that often had only the slightest relationship to any subject involved in the question.  But no one can say that Tina Fey has an easy job this weekend.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, certainly failed to show up this ignorant Alaskan, and given his experience with the subject matter put on the table by Gwen Ifill, it isn’t as if he didn’t have the tools available.  But he did not do so, and made a few substantive gaffes, not to mention tripped on his words numerous times.  Still, he did an overall adequate job.

The questions posed by Gwen Ifill were eminently fair, if not somewhat obvious.  She’s no Katie Couric.  Dodging questions was easy enough, and no there was no follow up to attempt to obtain an answer to the question posed.  This makes the concept of debate seem rather pointless, since it allowed the candidates to remain within their comfort zone of canned answers. 

If anything, Biden put himself at a disadvantage by actually trying to answer some of the questions, and positing some rather controversial positions, while Palin’s answers, to the extent they were tested against Biden’s, lacked any clarity.  Notably, Alaskan gubernatorial opponent, Andrew Halcro,  said of her responses during a debate:

I didn’t understand a word that she said in 90 minutes, yet the crowd just absolutely loved her.  

His point was that she connected with people, notwithstanding her inability to articulate a clear concept.  This reflects on both Palin as well as the public, but is more a condemnation of democracy than the candidate.  There is nothing wrong with being loved by the crowd.

Biden’s manner came off as old school politician, pedantic and overly-emphatic at times, despite his efforts to be an everyman.  When he got slammed by Palin for “looking backward,” he could have explained to her (and us) that we learn from our mistakes, and tossed in George Santayana’s quote for good measure.  Instead he said something like “As you know Gwen, the past is prologue.”  Not inspiring. 

Palin’s manner was in stark contrast, appearing as a cutsie, no-nothing populist who is “just like us” in that she doesn’t have to “know nothing about birthin’ no babies,” as long as she’s one of us common folk.  It made me nuts that she ends sentences with the word “also”, and does that little eye twitch/wink.  I found her manner to be akin to eating twinkies.  The “Joe Sixpack” referenced must have been vetted within an inch of its life, though it make me feel included.

Biden’s use of cliché political phrases, while clear to lawyers, sounded obtuse to others.  Since most people are unable to discern responsiveness, Palin’s lack of a clear substantive answer flew over the heads of many.  I suspect many will think her answers to be quite good, even though they had nothing to do with the questions.

The lesson from this debate is that winning can be as simple as not losing.  Sarah Palin enjoyed a benefit from Tina Fey’s caricature of her, creating the expectation that she was incapable of making it through this debate without melting into a big puddle of stupid on the floor.  But she was well coached, and studied hard, and made it to the end without a hitch.  The problem will be whether she can do the same if and when she is interviewed again and some tougher questions are posed.  Coaching is one thing.  Knowing has yet to be seen.

The lesson for Biden is that he’s no Lloyd Bentsen, and he failed to capitalize on the few openings he was given to contrast his knowledge and experience with hers.  I suspect he was instructed not to try, for fear that he could implode if he attempted to smack her. 

Sarah Palin won the debate because she did not crash and burn.   While this debate failed to prove that she is qualified to be president, it failed to disprove it as well.  Hung jury.