It was to be the best debate on television. One Sarah Palin who couldn’t say anything right, and the other Joe Biden, who kept biting his toes…

But no meltdowns occurred tonight. Biden carried himself on the forcefulness of his delivery, and Palin carried herself by her photogenics and playing to the camera…

Depending upon your criteria, you picked a different winner… If you were a policy wonk, then Biden carried the day.. His facts were straight, he at least answered the questions, and he showed that he was an effective debator…

But if you are a normal person, you should have felt that Sarah Palin responded to your needs. You would have cheered her as she spunkily refused to follow the questions being asked of her, and continued on her own agenda. In her own way, she was an expert too. Did Biden know about the third grade class watching both of them for extra credit? Of course not… And she looked good on camera too. So if you are of the belief that we do not need experts running our country, just someone with good ole country values, then you may have thought Sarah Palin to be the winner… Contrary to expectations she certainly didn’t tube…

So like the first debate between Obama and McCain, with this one there was no clear winner. Neither side put away the other and locked up the election…. But there was a loser.

That was John McCain… Even though he was not present, he was the topic of most of the conversation. Obama though mentioned, was not mentioned as much… Biden tackled the policies of McCain and I believe effectively linked McCain’s philosophy to that of Bush… Sarah talked of McCain being the “maverick” and riding into Washington to set things right… and Biden attacked that idea enough so I do not think most people will ever see him as the “maverick” as he wishes they would. Sarah, like a peppy cheerleader, was unable to sell her concept of how different John would be, and we the listeners walked away thinking more about the weaknesses of one John McCain, instead of that of Barak Obama.. Also like a good cheerleader, Sarah did her part to rally the troops with her version of “push ‘em back, push ‘em back, w-a-a-a-y back…” but as anyone who has ever been to a game knows, those cheers on the sidelines continue as positive as ever, even though the score is overwhelming against your favor….

I don’t think Sarah shot herself as did Dan Quayle in his debate… He never went on after his term ended… (what’s he doing anyway? I heard he was moderating spelling bees.) She, I think based upon her performance tonight, still has a political future, maybe even still on a national scale, if she returns home with some good handlers and begins boning up…. Wow, did I say she was hot?

But John McCain was the big loser… I think Biden effectively pegged the Bush presidency on McCain’s shoulders, despite all “maverick” talk to the contrary. And if regular voters look back at where this country has gone in the past eight years under Bush’s reign, that has got to hurt.

And that……. indirectly benefits Obama…

And just for the record, the historical issue that I will be pursuing…. will be to determine if this outcome was planned, and executed aptly by the Democratic planning committee, or after all the pieces were in play, did it just pan out that way… For if planned, it was brilliant. For as you remember before the debate, we were all discussing what tactics Joe Biden should take: whether Biden should hold back, or attack strongly, and then, would the moderator be blamed?…

What they succeeded in creating, was a debate where the two candidates came out in a draw, and Biden and Palin and the moderator all looked good. …. But John McCain, the maverick who was not there, came out …..the big loser…