The Soft Bigotry of Lowered Expectations

Joe Biden didn't put his foot in his mouth and Sarah Palin kept her foot out of hers, and that's really all you need to know about the excruciating 90-minute exercise last night known as the Vice Presidential Debate. But don't take my word for it:

Jim Kuhnhenn of The Associated Press:

"John McCain's campaign aches needed a tonic.

"On a day when he abandoned the fight with rival Barack Obama in one battleground state and national polls showed him trailing overall, running mate Sarah Palin put on a debate performance that soothed the pain. . . .

"But even as Palin reversed some of the harm she had caused herself, Biden was meeting his own tasks as well. Time and again, the veteran Delaware senator tied McCain to unpopular President Bush and managed to connect with the audience on a personal level as much as he did on policy points.

"Disciplined, he defended Obama from attacks, but refused to engage Palin in a tit-for-tat exchange."

Rick Moran at Rightwing Nuthouse:

"No, she's not smoother than Joe Biden. She was not the better debater (she lost badly on points). She doesn’t have the depth of knowledge, the experience, the ease with 'Washington speak' that Biden demonstrated – especially in foreign policy.

"But Sarah Palin has something Joe Biden and every other politician in America would give their right eye to possess – the innate ability to look a camera straight in the lens and make a connection with the hearts of ordinary Americans."

James Poulos at The Confabulum:

"Palin wins on domestic; Biden wins on foreign policy. But Palin's relative strength here can't do much, I don't think, to help McCain's basic disadvantage on the main domestic issue — the economy. To the extent that Palin does well on domestic issues, it's because she's drawing attention away from the basic problem at hand. Drilling may or may not be a great idea on the merits, but it doesn’t make up for $700 billion in oops spending. Not raising taxes? Great idea. But unless you’re really super wealthy, the tax question is an argument at the margins relative to the main question about where the economy’s going. Then again, the real bottom line may be that if a president can’t control the fate of the economy, a vice president certainly can’t."

Daniel Larison at Eunomia:

"I will admit that Palin has avoided disaster. Biden has put in a pretty successful performance. My guess is that Biden will come off as the clear winner in the eyes of viewers, but it will not be as lopsided as her critics expected."

Ben Smith at Politico:

"My quick take is that Palin passed a pass-fail test, though she flagged as the debate went on. Though she was chosen for her emotion connection, she was the drier of the two candidates. But if the central worry was that she'd be a drag on the ticket, she likely returned herself to the same status as Biden and every other running mate in memory: Not, ultimately, a major factor at the polls."

Dick Polman at American Debate:

"After awhile, I started to think I was listening to Marge Gunderson, the pregnant hick cop in Fargo.

"All told, Palin excelled to the best of her abilities - a welcome respite for worried Republican partisans. But, given Biden's solid performance (particularly during the final 30 minutes), it's doubtful that Palin changed the dynamics of a race that appears, by every objective polling measure, to be tilting increasingly Democratic. Indeed, Biden was deemed the clear winner of the debate in polls conducted last night by CNN and ABC. Even if those double-digit margins diminish over the next 48 hours, it's hard to imagine that Palin will ultimately succeed in shifting momentum to McCain."

Ezra Klein at The American Prospect:

"Seems that Palin kept talking about General McLellan when she meant General McKiernan. That's the sort of thing that might stick. Meanwhile, Palin says she loved being able to get up here and answer these tough questions without the 'filter of the mainstream media.' Weird that she used her closing statement so defensively. But whatever: Good for her. She should give up on politics and get a talkshow. Otherwise, she should learn how to answer the press's questions."

Matthew Yglesias at Think Progress:

"I’m not sure if Gwen Ifill was cowed by the rightwing mau-mau brigade or what, but I thought Ifill’s handling of the debate was pretty disappointing. Palin was clearly operating with a game plan that involved simply refusing to answer certain questions in order to drift over to her pre-prepared text, and Ifill didn’t ask any followups or challenge either candidate to address the questions she was asking. Indeed, at time Ifill was barely even asking questions — just suggesting topics."

Ross Douthat at The Atlantic:

"They both won, in the sense that they both did what they needed to do. Palin needed to arrest her slide into political oblivion, to hold her own on the stage with Biden, and to give the TV pundit class - which has the most bizarre love-hate relationship with her I've ever seen them have with a candidate - a reason to switch their narrative from 'Palin flops!' to 'Palin exceeds expectations!' "

Gerard Baker at Times Online:

"Last week, Senator McCain probably lost his first debate against Senator Obama by not winning it.

"On Thursday night Mrs Palin won her debate by not losing it."

Photograph by Don Emmert/The Associated Press