Last night, Vice Presidential candidates Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin engaged in a lively and spirited debate. As expected, Biden displayed his wealth of knowledge on a host of issues and Palin showed that she can trade blows with the best of them. Let’s break down what the candidates were attempting to do in this debate:

Sen. Joe Biden- I have to admit, Biden’s usual easygoing manner had me worried. I was concerned that he might lose composure facing a polished communicator like Sarah Palin and I was even more concerned that she would take advantage of it.  As it turned out, Biden did a fantastic job staying poised. It appeared that he had three goals in this debate. One, to draw a distinct contrast between Obama/Biden versus McCain/Palin. Two, to link McCain to Bush. Three, to display his experience and record versus a novice Palin.

Generally speaking, he accomplished all three. However, I would add the caveat to say that he did not do all equally well. In drawing a contrast with his opponents Biden talked about the economy and Iraq. On the former he did an ok job. He really could have drawn a bigger distinction though. It is no secret that the Republican Party is based largely on a coalition between the religious right and business interests. John McCain has traditionally been on the business side of that coalition, even feuding with the religious right  on several occasions, Biden needed to make that connection more clear. He did link McCain to deregulation. On Iraq, Biden did a much better job. He made it crystal clear that a vote for Obama/Biden is a vote to end the war. It would have been a knockout punch if he had talked about how the war on Iraq was based on lies.

Biden’s largest success was definitely linking McCain to Bush, which ultimately is the way to go given that Bush’s approval rating is hovering around 20%. In fact, several times Biden asked the question directly of how are McCain’s policies different than Bush’s. If he and Obama continue asking this question, they will find themselves continuing to be up in the polls.

In what was probably the easiest of Biden’s tasks, showing his experience and record, Biden did a good job. It’s not too hard. Biden has a strong record of accomplishment, one that Sarah Palin and arguably even John McCain can’t compete with. He needs to keep talking about it.

Sarah Palin-Even at this point of the campaign, it appears as if Palin is still trying to prove to Americans that she is a serious candidate and capable of taking on the VP role. Yet, that does not seem to matter to many voters, who continue to view her as a spectacle. In this debate Palin continued to harp on common themes. Her main focus seemed to be to portray herself and McCain as mavericks and outsiders who want to come in and shake up the establishment. She was also focused on linking herself with the theme of energy independence and Obama/Biden with tax increases and losing the Iraq war.

Did she succeed? It depends on how you measure it. Throughout the debate she said “maverick” on 6 occasions and “energy independence” 7 times. If you measure it that way then she appears to have done a good job. The question is will the American people look beyond the words and to the record. It is fair to say that there have been issues on which John McCain bucked the Republican Party, but those issues were the exception not the rule. As well, we must not forget that there have been several positions on which he has backpedaled and come to support Bush. On the issue of energy independence, Palin attempted to establish her knowledge and expertise. She touted her Governorship of an oil producing state and her role as a oil regulator, but let’s look beyond the words. It is true that Alaska is an oil producing state, one of the 31 in the US. Other oil producing states include Illinois and California, which I was surprised to find actually produces more oil than Alaska. As for her position as an oil regulator, also true. For 11 months, Sarah Palin was the public member of the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a 3-member regulatory body that oversees oil production(and other oil related endeavers) in Alaska. Whether her 2 years of indirect experience and 11 months of direct experience working on the oil industry issues give her much credibility on energy issues is for voters to determine. During the debate, the only real proposal Palin gave to achieve energy independence was to drill for more oil.

Palin also put a lot of focus on trying to convince people that the Obama/Biden were for tax increases despite insistence from the other side that the plan Obama is proposing would only tax folks earning over 250k. In my assessment, Republicans have traditionally won the rhetorical battle on taxes and this debate was no different. On the Iraq war, Palin worked hard to draw the line. Her message was that voting for Obama/Biden means losing the war. Although in the end I believe the Iraq war will be a negative for her ticket, in this debate she made clear and concise distinctions on this issue focusing on the success of the surge.

The Verdict- Joe Biden won this debate. People who initially enjoyed Sarah Palin’s informal style are now beginning to see that there isn’t much behind it. We’ve got a lot of very complicated problems to solve in the next eight years and reading the same talking points over and over again just isn’t going to cut it.

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