Yeah, she's sentient, but...

For the first 10 minutes of the debate I was a little bit worried that Sarah Palin would go the whole debate without making a fool out of herself. She didn't, but she gaps between the transparent gibberish or painful silences were longer than I was hoping for. I haven't checked yet, but my guess is the wingnuts will be extremely pleased. There will be internal discipline enforced on the Palin skeptics in the party.

But remember back about three weeks ago, how central the Sarah Palin boost was to McCain's campaign. When he last held the national lead, people were joking that he was going take the White House on her coattails (Palin/McCain). That story is over as soon as the standard for success in the debate becomes not putting on a pyrotechnic display of stupidity.

After a bumbling start, Biden settled in, and even when he was having trouble speaking he was on message (fairness, middle class, kitchen table). And even though he wasn't all that aggressive in general, I really thought he landed the harder hits on McCain than she did on Obama.

The closest he came to going after Palin was on the Dick Cheney fourthbranch issue, where he let a little exasperation creep into his voice. Palin may have managed to avoid explicitly endorsing the idea that the vice president isn't a member of the executive branch, but she didn't reject it either and she kept using the word "flexibility" to describe the office.

Palin: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation...

Biden: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

Update: Yes, the executive branch is Article II, but that's not the issue here dude.