Sarah Palin Survives the VP Debate

As Sarah Palin—who participated in her first and only vice-presidential debate on Thursday—might say, “you betcha” we’re talkin’ politics this week.

The reviews
After a rough go with Katie Couric, the Sarah Palin-Joe Biden debate was perhaps the most anticipated television moment of the year. Apparently 3,100 media credentials were issued, the most ever by the Commission on Presidential Debates. (Watch highlights of the debate here.)

We watched with a room full of several-hundred women in San Francisco, many of whom laughed at Palin’s colloquialisms and her eagerness to stick to her talking points on energy. But by all accounts she survived the evening and as the New York Times puts it, didn’t do “any obvious damage to the Republican ticket.”

And while it will take a little while to get the poll results, it’s not likely the performance did much to help John McCain’s presidential campaign. Over the last week Barack Obama has pulled ahead in national polls and also in several key battleground states: Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.

A review of the campaign positions
The VP debate centered on energy policy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economy, all hot topics in the presidential race.

Energy: Both candidates support off-shore drilling in the United States, although McCain (“drill, baby, drill!”) is far more enthusiastic. Obama favors limited drilling.

The economy: Sen. Obama wants to raise taxes only on individuals who make more than $250,000 a year, McCain wants to cut taxes on both individuals and corporations.

Healthcare: The Obama camp is pushing for universal health care. McCain wants to give people $5,000 to go buy their own health insurance, but where that money would come from has been the source of some controversy. 

The Wars: McCain wants to stay in Iraq until there’s “success,” Obama wants to set a timeline for troop withdrawal. In Afghanistan, both camps seem to want to prop up the efforts there.

We’ll do a full breakdown of the major issues and where each candidate stands in the coming weeks so that everyone will be fully prepared for November 4.

The big picture
With just 31 days to go until “the most important election you’ll ever vote in,” according to Joe Biden, the campaigning has reached a crescendo. When they aren’t in Washington bailing out the financial crisis, the candidates have been focusing on those undecideds. Barack Obama parked himself in Michigan for much of the week, working on getting the blue-collar vote, and news came Thursday that McCain was abandoning his campaign efforts there. McCain was in Iowa earlier in the week and had a testy exchange with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register (see clips).

The candidates will meet in Nashville on Tuesday for a town-hall debate, and one more time on October 15. Still, early voting has started in many states, but of course we won’t get these results until the day that really counts: Nov. 4.