Mo

Many tuned in expecting to see Sarah Palin crash and burn but the Alaska governor proved that she was as confident and cool as the Alaskan winter.

After her series of interviews with Katie Couric last week, Palin raised alarms over whether she could answer questions with any authority. A display such as one with Couric would have been disastrous, and likely the final nail in the coffin for the Republicans, but Palin was able to confidently deliver her message at the debate.

She didn't always answer questions, but instead wisely steered topics that began on a subject she didn't know much about to one that she did.

The governor also avoided her weak topics by qualifying answers with the idea that she didn't want to argue on the issue and instead thought there was another "more important" topic. For example, when she prefaced her statement about climate change by saying the cause didn't matter, only the effect -- thus avoiding any detail about her beliefs on global warming, which are rather dated and unpopular.

As for Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden, he held his own but his biggest mistake may have been to target McCain and not Palin. Biden referenced McCain more than 60 times throughout the debate, while Palin only referenced Barack Obama 17 times.

Biden's clear advantage over Palin was his knowledge and years of experience and while that came across in small doses, the Senator could have overwhelmingly turned the result in his favor by going directly at Palin.

Instead, in the end, while both candidates delivered their message, the debate didn't do enough to sway votes from either party to the other. And, at this point, that may be the biggest problem for the Republicans -- that the debate didn't do anything change the dynamics of the race. A dynamic that has slowly tilted in Obama's favor in recent weeks.

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