Vice-Presidential Debate Review

It doesn't often happen this way, but both debaters and their campaigns have to be very happy this morning.

There were no major gaffs. Both candidates sounded intelligent, spoke with some passion and weren't caught off-guard at any time. Sarah Palin did have a few moments of minor hesitation, but that is rather common in debates as your brain spins in a few directions at the start of a response, but she always got traction.

Palin did herself proud, she certainly stopped the bleeding of her reputation in the public eye. I think it quelled any movement to try to get McCain to find a new running mate and probably stopped the momentum swing to Obama-Biden, but I doubt it started to swing momentum back to the Republican ticket.

Joe Biden was pretty crisp, made no major gaffs and had several moments where he weaved his wonkish knowledge with a "down-home" feeling talking about his dad, where he grew up and even being a suddenly single parent.

Two things Biden said really stuck out to me. He did a serious slap-down on what exactly John McCain had been a maverick on and that on issues that were very important to the American public, he was in lock-step with George Bush. I think that took some steam out of Sarah Palin's ability to keep using the moniker "original maverick" for John McCain.

Joe Biden also painted a pretty clear picture of how he would be utilized and benefit Barack Obama as his VP. Not only did it instill confidence in the Obama-Biden team's ability to lead, it had to bring to mind questions of what exactly Sarah Palin would do for John McCain as his VP.

You can see the VP debate again and see how a group of Ohio Uncommitted voters judged the candidates continuously during the debate by going to the CNN video transcript website

Two important developments in different directions on the Electoral Vote side. First, it is being widely reported (but not officially confirmed yet) that John McCain is pulling campaigning resources out of Michigan and redeploying them to other battleground states (Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota). While this is probably sensible given recent polling changes, Michigan was one of the only states John Kerry won that McCain had a legitimate shot at winning.

Second, some polls out today that were run earlier this week show McCain closing or going ahead in some battleground states Obama had been consistently leading. The one that seems to have the most heft behind it is a Survey USA poll from Sept 30 - Oct 1 in Minnesota showing John McCain ahead by 1%. Survey USA polls in Minnesota all year have shown the race closer than most other polls, but this certainly will provide some energy to the McCain campaign.