Sarah Palin delivers an adequate performance against Joe Biden in the vice-presidential debate | Palin stops the bleeding, just | The Economist

"The good news for the McCain campaign is that Mrs Palin was confident and assertive, and made no big errors. The bad news is that a mediocre performance counts as good news. But they will take what they can get at this point.

The McCain campaign had lobbied for a constricted debate format: two-minute questions, without long freewheeling exchanges. This worked well for Mrs Palin. It seemed that she had memorised some talking points and was determined not to deviate from them."