7:50 MDT - I have absolutely no illusion anyone (neither of you) will be reading this as I write it, but, just for fun, on the spur of the moment, I thought I'd "liveblog" the "liveblogging" of this debate. Oddly enough, if you listen to the right (Stephen Green, R-Stoli), it seems Biden is doing better....

First smackdown of the night, and it goes to Biden. His premise on deregulation is still bogus, but there’s no way to get past that in a strict-format debate.... [On deregulation:] Biden’s message resonates with the electorate. [....] Biden has an easy command of the facts, even when his facts are BS.

... yet if you believe Andrew Sullivan (D-Excitable), Palin is walking all over Biden.

So far, this debate is a walk-over for Palin, enabled by Ifill but turned into a crater by Biden's incompetence as a debater. How he has managed to lose every issue where his positions are immensely stronger than Palin is beyond me. Real political malpractice.

Though I'd prefer to think otherwise, as usual, I disagree with Sullivan and tend to agree with Green.

7:55 - Palin's being friendly and smiling, defending the Bush administration as not an abject failure, while yet admitting mistakes. The tone she's using here really works.

7:56 - Credit to Gwen Ifill -- she can actually pronounce "nuclear". (As can Biden!) Unlike John Kerry, George Bush, John McCain, and Obama... and now Sarah Palin. I can't tell you how much it bugs me that people who control the weapons can't pronounce their names.

7:59 - Biden says that the top general in Afghanistan says "the principles of the surge" will not work in Afghanistan. Palin says he's wrong. Apparently, so does the International Herald Tribune:

U.S. general urges troop surge in Afghanistan

The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday that he needed more troops and other aid "as quickly as possible" in a counterinsurgency battle that could get worse before it gets better.

The commander, General David McKiernan, said it would take more than adding troops to stabilize Afghanistan, including efforts to strengthen the government, improve the economy and build its military and police forces... he said he needed the more than 10,000 additional forces he has requested, in part, to increase his military campaigns in the south and east, where violence has escalated.

Not sure precisely how Biden's gonna explain that.

8:09 - Well, Sullivan and I still disagree. He now thinks Palin is getting worse...

On foreign policy, as the debate slows down Palin's manic soundbites, Biden is gaining. in fact, I'm shifting in my view of this debate. Biden's authority is beginning to pierce the rat-a-tat-tat of Palin's Bush-style soundbites.

... while it seems to me she's warming up coming across more sincerely. Althouse cites a Drudge report saying Palin's ahead too (69% to 24%) -- but I suspect Drudge has a fairly conservative following.

8:11 - Palin says: "There you go again..." Well, their policies may be, at points, the opposite of Reagan's, but it's nice to see this little tribute to him. The "shout out" to the third graders probably didn't hurt her either.

8:16 - Biden: "Cheney's been the most dangerous vice president we've had in history." Argues that Cheney doesn't understand he is supposed to support the President. "The idea he's part of legislative branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney." Really?

Vice President of the United States (President of the Senate)

... The framers also devoted scant attention to the vice president's duties, providing only that he "shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be evenly divided" (Article I, section 3). In practice, the number of times vice presidents have exercised this right has varied greatly. John Adams holds the record at 29 votes, followed closely by John C. Calhoun with 28. Since the 1870s, however, no vice president has cast as many as 10 tie-breaking votes. While vice presidents have used their votes chiefly on legislative issues, they have also broken ties on the election of Senate officers, as well as on the appointment of committees in 1881 when the parties were evenly represented in the Senate.

Wouldn't legislative tie-breaker be a legislative role? How can a candidate for VP be so ignorant of the history and Constitutional definition of the office he wants to assume? I find that "scary"!

And of course, Biden's wrong about his implication Cheney shouldn't be active: The president can appoint anyone he wants to help carry out his policies.

8:27 - Biden is touting his "bipartisan" credentials. I don't know that much about him, but I suspect he's right, given his frequent disagreements with Obama during the primaries. He says he doesn't question his opponent's motives. I'll grant him that, but when he includes Obama in that -- no, sorry Joe. Obama rather frequently implies his opponents have bad motivations and intent.

8:32 - Biden is talking about self-sufficiency, and saying he & Obama want to "establish that certitude" in our neighborhoods. Hmmm. Too bad none of their policies encourage that.

Thus ends the debate. Now the commentators will tell us what to think. CBS's idea of balance? First ask Lieberman -- an independent who's going to give a pretty even-handed analysis. Then ask Claire McCaskill, who framed the debate by saying the most important issue was for Palin to explain the difference between their policies and George Bush's. What an obvious partisan spiel: people want to know a candidate differs from their opponents.

McCaskill looks about the same as when I last met her.