But Enough About Me.

As I said, I think Sarah Palin won the debate last night. I'd leave it at that, but since I've lost all my conservative readers I don't feel the need to shelter their hypersensitivities any more. And some people are a little more concerned with substance than I am.

Sean at FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.COM liveblogged: It seems the meta thru-line of Governor Palin's performance tonight is that we need change from the folks who've been in Washington for a long time. That can't be a good thematic element. (Arguably, Biden said the same, but he didn't keep hammering it home so much, which means it's harder to pin on him.)

Courtesy THINK PROGRESS: On MSNBC, Pat Buchanan is quite vehemently insisting that Palin “wiped the floor” with Joe Biden whom he described as “boring.” Rachel Maddow tried to press Buchanan on whether Palin’s various factual errors were relevant, but Buchanan dismissed these concerns as “picayune.” This is important. I think most people who say Palin came out ahead last night are basing the judgement on the same likability criteria. If that matters. But again from fivethirtyeight maybe people aren't as shallow as they used to be: Biden won the CBS poll of undecideds 46-21, and the CNN poll of debate watchers 51-36. Independents in the large MediaCurves focus group panel went for Biden about 2:1.

Also from TP - 9:44: Palin just said that the plan that Obama, Maliki, and President Bush currently supports is “a white flag of surrender.”

ABC News pointed out that Palin's assertion that we are back down to pre-surge troop levels is incorrect. Iraq troop levels before the surge were at 133,500. While U.S. troop levels in Iraq have been in the 142,000 range recently, today they are at around 150,000 because of an ongoing troop rotation.

Also, Palin seems totally behind the Dick Cheney idea that the Vice President's office is some super-legislative entitity that runs all branches of government. I'm more traditional on this one: it's a limited role until the President either dies from a heart attack or is killed by panicked white supremacists. God Forbid in either case.

By the way, is it my imagination or was Sarah smiling a little too broadly when she addressed that subject?