Editor’s Note: Justin here. I’m very excited to welcome Dan Hill to Donklephant, author of Face Time, a book about the political candidates and how their emotions play a vital role in the campaign. He’ll be penning some editorials about the “facial coding” that went on with each candidate after every debate.
Here’s part of his [...]

First, the poll shows us that Biden won the debate 54% to 46%. So yet again, he wins in a poll. I saw Pat Buchanan try to argue today on The McLaughlin Group that Drudge’s online poll and Frank Luntz’s focus group on Fox should count too. Well, good luck with that Pat.
Now, Palin was [...]

So far, not one poll I’ve seen has shown Palin winning. Well, except for the non-scientific online polls which anybody can game if they know how delete cookies from their browser.
So who thought what?

Obama supporters favored Biden by an 81% to 3% margin.

McCain voters declared Palin the victor 76% to 5%.

Government employees declared Biden [...]

Yep, the whole thing.

Of note, this debate pulled in more viewers than any since 1992.
Crazy.

If you’re interested in seeing where the vice-presidential candidates stretched the truth or just down-right fibbed, the AP has good coverage.
Unsurprisingly, both Sarah Palin and Joe Biden managed to squeeze in some deceptions.
Isn’t it sad that a whole “fact check” industry has to exist because our politicians simply can’t stop spewing half-truths and [...]

Frank Luntz talks to undecideds…

I heard a lot of people in that segment who had really low expectations of her going into this, but fair enough…there’s at least one group who thought she bested Biden.
Again, I think all of those folks who thought she’d implode were really fooling themselves. I watched a debate with her [...]

Still, more voters did say their opinion of Palin improved than Biden (55% to 53%). But given how low that opinion was in the first place, that was to be expected if she turned in an adequate performance.
I have no link. Sorry. You’ll just have to trust me.
UPDATE:
Oh, and 33% said they tied.
I’m sure [...]

For anyone hoping that Sarah Palin would put the final nail in her own coffin, tonight must have been a disappointment. We saw none of the stumbling, deer-in-the-headlight moments we’d seen in her sit-down interviews. Overall, she came off as intelligent and middle American. But just because she held her own doesn’t mean she won. [...]

As I’ve said before, it wasn’t enough for Palin to not fall on her face. And to her credit she didn’t. But to have any effect in this race, she had to demonstrate an almost preternatural sense of what independent American voters wanted to hear. But between her folksy talk and canned answers that danced [...]

It wasn’t even close.

She got the name of the top general in Afghanistan wrong. It’s actually “McKiernan.”
That can’t be good for people who think she’s inexperienced.

Also, it turns out she was just plain wrong when she claimed he didn’t say an Iraq style surge didn’t work.
And I quote…
“Afghanistan is not Iraq,” said Gen. David McKiernan, who led [...]

Palin had a lot of folksy talk. Biden had real emotion.

What did you think?

Here’s MSNBC’s live feed…

Add your voice in the comments section below. I may start up another post if we have a ton of comments.
Some advice. Since there’s video embedded here, I’d open this post in an additional tab too so you can comment quickly and you won’t have to start up the video again. Obviously [...]

What’s on your mind?
What will happen?
Who will win?
And why?
Talk!

In the hours before the vice-presidential debate, word from the John McCain campaign is that Sarah Palin will go on the attack, challenging Joe Biden on his foreign policy blunders and his liberal record.
I hate to say it, but this is probably Palin’s best bet. She can quite easily spend her time avoiding the questions [...]

From almost the moment John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, we’ve heard the media are out to get her. Because, you know, the media hate average people. How dare they expect the anointed one (Republican model) to make a case for herself or to prove she has the base of knowledge necessary [...]

Two experienced debaters and political junkies offer a preview of the upcoming vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.
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“I think she has pretty thoroughly — and probably irretrievably — proven that she is not up to the job of being president of the United States. [...] The story of Dan Quayle is he did probably 1,000 smart things as vice president, but his image was locked in and it was very difficult to [...]

The numbers stay the same as we’re probably seeing a good judge of how voters felt post-debate.

More on the effect of the debate…
The trend on the presidential horserace showed Obama building momentum heading into Friday’s debate, moving from a tie earlier in the week to a five percentage point Obama advantage through Friday interviewing (most [...]

I realize I’m a few days late in my debate reaction, but I wanted to go ahead and begin the new week by sharing a few thoughts on the first John McCain / Barack Obama debate. I liked more than I didn’t like. So let’s get to it:
What I Liked
Both candidates seemed very well prepared. [...]