St Louis Debate

FULL DEBATE COVERAGE, ANALYSIS Watch the town-hall presidential debate live with CNN's player. loadCNNLiveModule("myCNNLiveModule",300); -OR- Wa...

The thrill of any debate comes in that one moment - and it almost always comes if you are patient - when one candidate finds a small opening and claims the evening.

With our nation facing two hot wars abroad and an economic melt-down at home, substance matters. And when it came to substance, Senator Biden had a good night indeed.

CNN had a graph running along the bottom of the screen during the debate, allegedly representing the moment-by-moment feelings of a group of independent voters. This is no way to watch a debate.

Thursday's debate was a serious and substantive affair. With superb moderating by Gwen Ifill, the conversation stuck to policy-driven sparring, but the footage is already taking a different shape on YouTube.

It was very interesting to watch Palin when the camera was on Biden. On foreign policy and other points where she gave light answers, she was intently reviewing her notes on the podium.

Here was Joe Biden who's been in government for 30- plus years who never had laid eyes on this woman. Don't let them tell you this is a good thing.

The moment when Biden talked about the death of his wife and child, and raising his sons himself was tremendously moving and genuine. It was a bold -- and very relevant -- point to make.

Her performance wasn't the disaster that some in the GOP have been fearing. But cliché was piled upon cliché as Palin sought to paint Obama as a goofy radical who would end up running America off the rails.

After watching the debate, I am convinced that if the country somehow has a collective mental meltdown and elects Sarah Palin, she will be even more dangerous than Cheney.

Joe Biden did more for the equality of the sexes with his honest display of paternal emotion during the vice presidential debate than Sarah Palin's presence on the executive ticket has or will ever do.

Why is this child up so late every time there is a camera op? Why isn't this baby sleeping in a crib or bassinet somewhere with a sleep sheep or some other sound apparatus lulling him into night-night?

In Sarahland, answering questions asked to you is optional. You say what you want to say, regardless of what that old-school questioner has to offer.

Madeleine Albright: Senator Biden's Night: Given the challenges our nation now faces, we need a vice president who can be persuasive with foreign lea...