Debate Rundown with Corrections

Think Progress has an excellent live-blogged rundown of the debate as it happened including debunking falsehoods.

Give it a read if you're interested in learning how much of Sarah Palin's obviously rehearsed talking points were factual and which were based in fantasyland.

The important information is right near the top:
11:14: Yglesias points to the CBS instapoll showing that undecided voters watching the debate thought Biden won by 46 percent, compared to 21 percent for Palin. (UPDATE: CNN poll on “Who Did the Best Job In the Debate?” Biden 51% Palin 36%)

Joe Biden made an honest effort to answer the questions he was asked, Sarah Palin did nothing even remotely close to engaging the questions. She had her talking points and stuck to them regardless of how little they had to do with the questions. She didn't debate, she recited.

Either way, the debate won't be the turning point of the campaign. Palin did well enough to not get skewered, Biden didn't insult or demean her, there were no really nasty gotcha moments. There were some heated exchanges where Palin was factually incorrect but kept parroting her talking points anyway. And Joe wasn't absolutely spot on in every case but he was far, far, far more knowledgable and vice presidential.

And, if I'd been playing the Maverick drinking game, I would have been drunk pretty quickly. I loved when Joe Biden verbally rebutted one of the many times Palin claimed McCain is a maverick with specifics. There were some good moments but no meltdown and no explosions.

Palin lost but not by the crushing annihilation that some (myself included) were expecting. It doesn't really matter in any case, the McCain/Palin Smoke and Mirrors Express is having a harder time convincing Americans that they are anything but another Bush administration with one angry face and one deer in the headlights.