This debate was all about Sarah Palin. After a disastrous couple of weeks and sinking poll numbers, she risked torpedoing the Republican’s chances entirely. She needed to show her mettle

The consensus with pundits who watched the one and only U.S. Vice Presidential debate last night was that Sarah Palin did a very good job in debating Joe Biden — much better than expected. However, they believe she came up short and Biden won the debate.

I watched the debate and I, too, was impressed with Sarah Palin’s performance. She did much to erase the negative reviews left by her recent interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. But, it will not be enough to stem the tide for the McCain-Palin ticket.

My colleague Marshall Auerback and I have been discussing the debate and we independently came up with the same assessment: Sarah Palin needed to erase her recent poor interview performances and she held her own for the first hour or so. But, Biden outclassed her on substance as she faltered on the foreign policy side of things.

Marshall had this to say:

Sarah the soundbite Palin sounded exceptionally scripted. When she got questions that were off the talking points, she simply refused to answer…

And I said to my wife, “If she uses the word ‘maverick’ one more time, I’m going to throw a rock at the TV.”

Surprisingly, Biden came across as authentic which was something she was supposed to do. At one point, he choked up and Focus Group ratings on CNN soared. When he choked up over losing his wife and child in a car accident in which his sons were critically injured — and she went straight back into “John McCain is a maverick.” I truly expected her to express human sympathy with Biden, and her failure to do so showed me something deeply wrong with her. When something wasn’t on the “script” she couldn’t cope. It was like a short-circuit went off in her brain.

She called the top commander in Afghanistan “General McClellan”; his name is David McKiernan. She said the troop levels in Iraq are down to pre-surge levels; they’re not. She simply didn’t answer a lot of the questions. Moderator Gwen Ifill tried to pull her back, but Palin is stubborn; she had her talking points, and she stuck to them and OPENLY ADMITTED THAT SHE WASN’T GOING TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT WERE ASKED. Do you think she’ll have this kind of flexibility if, God forbid, she should ever become President?

This debate was more revealing than the Presidential one last week because it became very clear that she simply doesn’t have the substance to be VP much less President which reflects badly on John McCain’s judgement.

That McCain is no longer campaigning in Michigan tells me he’s in big trouble.

I am a little less harsh on Palin, but I agree with the thrust of Marshall’s comments. I had actually been pretty disappointed with Palin’s preparation in the Gibson and Couric interviews because she came out of the gate so well, with a super Republican Convention performance. (I say this not because I want her and McCain to win — I don’t since I support Obama and Biden. However, I did want to see her perform well since she was only the second woman VP candidate in U.S. history) Her disastrous performances showed me that she was not prepared to be Vice President because she did not have a firm grip on substantive issues that I would expect a VP to know something about.

But, she was very well prepped. She looked confident. She was well-spoken and she had a fairly good command of the issues — although it seemed her performance was very scripted — she even gave a disclaimer at the outset that she wasn’t going to answer questions the way her opponent and the moderator wanted, but was going to talk to the people through the TV screen. That’s a great line but she obviously was doing that in order to NOT stray from her talking points and get blown up with a huge gaffe.

Biden made no major gaffes and treated his opponent with the respect she deserves, focusing his attack on John McCain. He had an obvious command of issues and spoke fluently on all subjects put his way. He was impressive — perhaps more impressive than Obama was in his debate.

On the whole, the only major gaffe I saw throughout the debate was Palin’s apparent lack of sympathy when Biden showed obvious emotion in talking about the death of his first wife. It was a very revealing moment. It suggested to me at least that she is not only scripted on substance but on style too.

Feel free to share any of your thoughts and comments.