Open veep debate thread

11:00 PM:  Off to bed.  For those of you who missed the debate, Will Wilkinson's recap is shorter and funnier than the actual debate.  10:46 PM:  Ah, I can switch to CNN... and just heard an uncommitted Ohio voter say that she thought there was more "straight talk" in this debate.  This is odd, because I thought both McCain and Obama were better at direct answers than Palin or Biden.  10:44 PM:  The Official Blog Wife is forcing me to watch the post-game on PBS.  A professor there also says she thought that Palin's answers were way too folksy.  Hmmm... two academics think she was too colloquial... McCain advisors somewhere are jumping with glee.    10:31 PM:  That's it!  My take:  Palin did much better than expected, but the folksiness was layered on a bit thick for me.  Biden did better than her on foreign policy, but he also launched into some stem-winders when shorter, crisper replies would have been better.  10:29 PM:  Palin's closing statement:  "I've always been proud to be an American.  And so has John McCain."  Subtle implication:  Biden and Obama are the real Manchurian Candidates.  10:27 PM:  Oh, wow, Biden just gave a shout-out to Mike Mansfield.  That's old school!  And it's actually a good anecdote about Jesse Helms.  10:18 PM:  I'm going to be very curious how this debate plays with people who only catch bits and pieces of the debate.  I think the Sarah Palin of this debate will play well in short sound bites; Joe Biden is barely tolerable.  Over ninety minutes, Palin's repeated tics start to grate more than Joe Biden's -- which is really saying something.  10:13 PM:  Did Sarah Palin just say that she wished the Constitution gave the Vice-Presidency more power?  10:11 PM:  ENOUGH WITH THE MOTHER-F$%$ING SMALL TOWN, MAIN STREET, SCRANTON/WASILLA FOLK WISDOM BULLS%$T!!  God, that felt good.  10:10 PM:  I'm beginning to suspect that at 3:00 AM every day this week, someone woke up Sarah Palin and yelled "greed and corruption on Wall Street" at her.  10:04 PM:  Hey, Sarah Palin wants to attach political conditionality to Alaska's sovereign wealth fund!  This live-blogging has actually been useful for my research!  10:03 PM:  David Pinto is live-blogging the Cubs-Dodgers game.  I so got the short end of the stick.  10:01 PM:  Biden's contempt is starting to leak through.... his sigh is almost as good as Al Gore's.  To be fair, I'm finding Palin to be a bit wearying after an hour of listening to her verbal tics.  9:59 PM:  Before I vote for Barack Obama, he must promise that he will never allow Joe Biden to repeat anything on camera ever again.    9:51 PM:  Was it just me, or did Biden have a mini-stroke when he said "Spain?"  9:47 PM:  Biden gives an answer on Pakistan that's pretty good, until he ends with (paraphrasing), "there are 1,000 madrasahs on the border in Pakistan!  We should be building schools instead."  Hey, Joe?  That's what a madrasah is.  I think he just pulled a Palin! 9:43 PM:  Palin to Biden:  "Your plan on Iraq is a white flag of surrender."  Wow.  That's pretty strong language.  Since no one cares about Iraq anymore, it won't matter, though.  9:38 PM:  Laura McKenna:  "I really, really want to trim Palin's bangs."  9:31 PM:  On the climate change question, a little of the Katie Couric-style Palin pops in for a visit.  Oh, and just to repeat -- energy independence is a really nice thing to talk about, but until those dilithium crystals are discovered, it's never gonna happen.  9:29 PM:  James Poulos is right:  "it’s so far super-easy to tune [Biden] out. 9:27 PM:  I know this is nitipicking, but neither of them has directly answered a question.  9:26 PM:  Biden is driving me to drink.  By the fourth question, Palin has finally nailed her Tina Fey impression cold.  9:23 PM:  Blinking Light 1, Biden 0!! 9:21 PM:  God bless Megan McArdle: "Sarah Palin winks at the camera.  I didn't believe it the first time I saw it; thank god for TiVo.  I think all three million viewers are supposed to come up to her hotel room with a bottle of champagne after the debate." 9:17 PM:  Palin makes a great point about small businesses!  Really!  I'm not being sarcastic here (Biden has a fair rebuttal)! 9:15 PM:  Palin's spoken message, "I might not answer the questions in the way you like, but I'm going to speak right to the American people!"  Unspoken message:  "Darn it, I've learned how to duck a direct question!  Yay!!" 9:13 PM:  I second Alex Massie -- "I too want extra credit for watching this." 9:12 PM:  Everyone drink at the first mention of a Joey!! 9:10 PM:  Hey, Suzie Ormon has possessed Sarah Palin's body!!  9:09 PM:  Both of them gave decent non-answers to the first question.  9:01 PM:  Watching this on CNN HD -- uncommitted Ohio voters are decidedly neutral towards Gwen Ifill. 9:00 PM:  It begins... hey, wait, where's the Olympic torch ceremony?  8:54 PM:  Should Soledad O'Brien really be telling the dialers that negative attacks don't play well with dialers?  Isn't that corrupting the sample?  8:50 PM:  In a dramatic policy reversal, the hard-working staff here at danieldrezner.com announced that they will start watchig the debate with coffee ice cream, and then switch to alcohol.  This was not an easy decision to make, but after seeing the effect of our prior policy on equity and credit markets, it was necessary to make adjustments.  7:24 PM:  Politico's Mike Allen reports that Palin is going to go on the offensive against Biden.  This would make the debate more entertaining.  Comment away on the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.  I'll be live-blogging this one, but bear in mind: I'll probably update this post a little less frequently -- i.e., after every five-minute "segment" of the debate. If this goes as I expect, I'll be drinking more than during the first debate.    Here's a topic of discussion before tonight's debate -- the following ad released by McCain's campaign.  It's targeted against Biden, and called "Embarrass":   The ad works in making Biden seem buffoonish.  Here's the thing, though -- is it possible to defend this ad while simultaneously defending Sarah Palin?  Wouldn't the people who like Palin's "folksiness" like some of the gaffes in this ad?  Seriously, I put this to the Palinphiles.  Back when the debate starts....