KEY POINTS:
Senator Joe Biden seemed to be holding a lead among pundits as to who won the crucial vice-presidential debate with Governor Sarah Palin this afternoon.
CNN television channel headlined its coverage "Jabs but no knockouts for Biden, Palin"
CNN anchor and reporter, Jonathan Mann,
blogged that "Joe Biden was on TV but Sarah Palin was on trial."
He felt that Palin, the Governor of Alaska, had displayed many of her strengths and largely sidestepped her weaknesses.
But much of its own after debate polling found more people had favourable responses to Biden than Palin afterwards.
The New York Times said that Governor Palin displayed more "confidence and fluency" than she had in previous television outings.
"Facing low expectations because of her stumbling performance in recent television interviews, Ms. Palin went toe-to-toe with Mr. Biden at many points, not skipping a beat as she recited facts and figures to make her points."
The Washington Post put up its associate editor Robert Kaiser to answer questions from readers on the debate.
He argued that Palin had done reasonably well:
"No doubt she reminded some of the people who were enthusiastic about her selection as McCain's running mate of what they liked about her. We saw again the feisty, smiling, engaging Sarah Palin tonight. She probably re-invigorated the Republican base. But did she make progress with the independents who, the polls indicate, turned sharply against her during September? I certainly don't know, and I eagerly await the evidence we'll get in the days ahead."
The influential
Huffington Post blog site pointed out that generally a panel of undecided voters in Ohio, monitored by CNN, for its "worm" largely favoured Democratic vice-presidential candidate Biden.
"Biden repeatedly won high accolades on a wide range of topics. His remarks about the personal trials of having a wife and daughter die in a car accident sent responses from both male and females through the roof. His dig at Dick Cheney - "the most dangerous Vice President in history" - and his pledge to end the war in Iraq were similarly popular. When he defended Obama from Palin's attacks, he was held in equally high regard."
Palin, the first woman nominated by the Republican party as vice president, called Democrat Barack Obama's plan to withdraw American forces from Iraq a "white flag of surrender."
Biden, shot back that she and Republican presidential nominee John McCain were "dead wrong" about Iraq from the beginning, and the United States was wasting $10 billion a month in Iraq while ignoring the real center of terrorism, Afghanistan and its mountainous shared border with Pakistan.
Palin also called Obama naive for saying he was willing to engage the leaders of Iran, North Korea and Cuba.
"That is beyond bad judgment. That is dangerous," Palin said.
The face-off began with Palin saying the best way to gauge Americans' feelings about the failing US financial system and the $700 billion rescue plan was to go to a soccer game and ask the parents on the sidelines.
"I bet you're going to hear fear," she said, assuring voters that she and Republican presidential nominee John McCain were the "mavericks" who could reform the system that allowed the financial crisis to develop.
Palin said "Joe six-packs and hockey moms across the country" needed to band together to say "never again." Those are both terms Palin has used to describe herself as she has sought to ingratiate herself with middle-class Americans.
Biden opened the debate by blaming the Republican party's handling of the country's economy over the eight years of President George W. Bush's administration, which Biden said would be continued by a President John McCain.
He also defended the Obama plan to raise taxes on Americans making more than $250,000 annually as a matter of "simple fairness."
"This is not punitive," he said, adding that middle class Americans deserved tax breaks.
Palin said Obama was promoting a "redistribution of wealth" that would result in fewer jobs and a reduction of tax revenues.
Biden accused McCain of planning to give big corporations an additional $300,000 in tax breaks. "That's not redistribution of wealth. That's fairness," he said.
He also called the Republican party's plan for revising the American health insurance system the "ultimate bridge to nowhere," referring to the financial boondoggle that was killed in Alaska after first being supported by Palin, as governor.
Palin refused to blame global warming on human activity, but conceded the Earth's climate was changing. Biden said the Earth was growing warmer because of the burning of carbon dioxide-emitting fuels, and Republicans could not solve the problem because they did not acknowledge its true cause.
With the Republican ticket falling in the polls, Palin was carrying a heavy burden in the back and forth with Biden, a 36-year veteran of the US Senate.
McCain took a huge gamble in choosing Palin, whose addition to the ticket initially mobilized the party's conservative base around his candidacy. In the intervening weeks, however, her inexperience and provincial demeanor have become fodder for late-night television comedians.
Also, in the month since she stepped onto the national stage as the first female Republican vice presidential nominee, the 44-year-old Palin has proved uneven in solo news interviews, showing a lack of experience and breadth of knowledge normally expected in a candidate who would take over in the White House should the 72-year-old McCain win the election, then become incapacitated.
An Associated Press-Gfk poll released Wednesday found that just 25 per cent of likely voters believe Palin has the right experience to be president. That is down from 41 per cent just after the Republican convention, when the Alaska governor made her well-received national political debut. The same survey shows Democrat Barack Obama with a 48 per cent to 41 per cent lead in voter preference with less than five weeks remaining until Election Day, November 4.
- AP
