I took a spin around the internet tonight to see what people thought. First, here’s what the McCain camp said:

“Tonight, Governor Palin proved beyond any doubt that she is ready to lead as Vice President of the United States. She won this debate, putting Joe Biden on defense on energy, foreign policy, taxes and the definition of change. Governor Palin laid bare Barack Obama’s record of voting to raise taxes, opposing the surge in Iraq, and proposing to meet unconditionally with the leaders of state sponsors of terror. The differences between the Obama-Biden ticket and the McCain-Palin ticket could not have been clearer. The American people saw stark contrasts in style and worldview. They saw Joe Biden, a Washington insider and a 36-year Senator, and Governor Palin, a Washington outsider and a maverick reformer. Governor Palin was direct, forceful and a breath of fresh air.” –Jill Hazelbaker, McCain-Palin 2008 Communications Director

You wouldn’t expect Team McCain to say anything but glowing things about Gov. Palin’s performance so this isn’t a surprising response. Nonetheless, I think it’s a pretty accurate summation. Her reply that you have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk was a great one-liner. Her rebuke on what Gen. McClellan said was a sharp response, too. She proved that she’s absolutely competent.

Here’s what Roger L. Simon of Pajamas Media said:

I actually had some sympathy for Joe Biden tonight (who we all know thinks John McCain is better than Obama anyway – he’s said so, as Palin was correct to point out). He was an aging fellow (like me) forced to debate a young and much more charismatic woman who was easily his equal. You could see in his body language that he knew it.

I didn’t watch the debate so I’ll take Roger’s word that Biden’s body language said that he knew she was doing well.

Earlier tonight, I called Hugh’s ‘postgame wrap’ and said that people wouldn’t buy that John McCain doesn’t support the troops like Biden tried convincing people of. Here’s what Hugh wrote about tonight’s debate:

After the wave of assaults on her, Sarah Palin shows the nation why John McCain picked her and why the center-right loves her. She has a great night. Joe Biden does well too, but this was all about Sarah Palin, and she delivered a strong, strong message of energy and change.

The one great line of the debate: “It is so obvious that I am a Washington outsider,” Palin says, “soemone just not used to the way you guys operate” as she points out Joe Biden’s attempt to doubletalk his way to Obama’s position.

Biden’s big gaffe came on Iran: “They are not close to getting a nuclear weapon that can be deployed.”

The Luntz focus group picked up the decisive Palin win, and Luntz is predicting a move towards McCain in the polls as a result. McCain will have to take on the issue of the origins of the subprime crisis to capitalize on this opening, and Sarah needs to be out on talk radio every day from here on out. She is back as the GOP’s best weapon in Election ‘08.

I especially agree with Hught that she needs to take time for talk radio from now until Election Day. She’s the one who energizes the GOP and wins over moderates, undecideds and women.

John Hinderaker titled his post “Grand Slam“. Here’s how he justified the post’s title:

That describes the first half-hour of Sarah Palin’s performance against Joe Biden tonight. She was calm, commanding and articulate. She repeatedly knifed Biden with a smile and showed why she is one of the most effective communicators in American politics. I’ve been watching Presidential debates since 1960, and I can’t recall a more one-sided matchup than the first 30 minutes of tonight’s debate. It was all Sarah Palin.

John then continues with this keen observation:

With very little adjustment to her schedule, she could do talk radio every day. Earlier this week, she did a ten minute appearance on Hugh Hewitt’s show. It was, I believe, the first such talk radio interview she’s given. This is madness. Every day, she should be talking with Rush Limbaugh, Hugh, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Jim Vicevich, and so on. Wherever she goes, she should do fifteen minutes with a local talk radio host. If she went on with people like Jason Lewis and Scott Hennen, to name just two out of many, she would cement her relationship with the Republican base and bring the McCain campaign immeasurable good will.

It also wouldn’t hurt if she sat down for interviews with significant conservative web sites. Hey, we’re available! And, while the campaign’s focus at this point is naturally on “earned media,” I’d like to see a few television commercials featuring Governor Palin speaking directly to voters. As she reminded us tonight, she can do it very well.

The more visible Gov. Palin is, the better the chances for the ticket and for downticket races, too.

Here’s TheNextRight’s Jon Henke’s opinion:

Gov. Palin did one thing very well and one thing poorly:
GOOD: She didn’t make any major mistakes. In that regard, Palin beat expectations soundly. She did get some facts wrong, but she didn’t have The Gaffe and without that Moment on which all future attention focuses, impressions will largely be shaped by the personalities of the people involved. Fortunately for her, Sarah Palin is likable. However…

BAD: Sarah Palin was speaking, but other people’s words were coming out of her mouth. She was clearly trying to cram in as many talking points as possible. As a result, she talked too fast, she talked too much and she sounded more like a scripted politician than a charismatic reformer.

I’ll respectfully disagree with Mr. Henke. I thought she hammered Sen. Obama a couple of times. She criticized Sen. Obama for saying he’d meet without preconditions with Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro and Kim Jung Il. She didn’t come off harsh. She did it by complimenting Sen. Biden for taking Sen. Obama to task on that issue. That’s pitch perfect putting the knife in, then giving it a sharp twist, all with a smile on her face.

Jim Geraghty, Mark Hemingway, and special guest Eli Lake sat down for a session of Red Meat. Follow this link to watch the video of their conversation. It’s worth the watching.

Here’s what Erick wrote at RedState:

1. Paging Kathleen Parker, Connor whatshisname, etc: If you still want to talk about Palin dropping out, you have beltwayitis and need to leave the NYC-DC corridor of talking heads and cocktail parties for the real United States.
2. Gwen Ifill showed her bias tonight repeatedly. She constantly let Joe Biden have the last word. Constantly. Something like 3 to 1. Likewise, she predicated questions negatively toward Palin like the gay marriage issue in Alaska.
3. This has got to be embarrassing to the Obama campaign: “But Barack Obama indicated to me he wanted me with him tohelp him govern. So every major decision he’ll be making, I’ll be sitting in the room to give him my best advice. ” Yep, Biden admits the stereotype: Little Barry needs Joe in the room because Barry can’t make decisions by himself.
4. Palin devastated Biden. She put him on the defensive. She made him sigh repeatedly. He rolled his eyes, licked his teeth, talked down, pontificated, and really did himself few favors. About the only major point score for Biden was talking about being a single parent.
5. Biden repeatedly exaggerated, got it wrong, and flat out lied on the coal issue. Not helpful for them.
6. At the end of the day, the debate won’t matter. In the Luntz focus group on Fox (btw, Biden won the CNN one, but the Luntz one was done by a professional company that specializes in getting it right, unlike CNN, though the Luntz panel thought Obama won last week), most everyone thought Palin won, but very few of the committed changed their minds.

TheNextRight’s Patrick Ruffini simply states that Sarah is Back:

Tonight, Sarah Palin was sharp, articulate, and connected with the middle class. The #1 political effect tonight will have is an important one for the McCain campaign: she shut the doubters up, and then some. In this important sense, she stopped the bleeding. I suspect that a very tough couple of weeks ends tonight, and it will be up to John McCain to get the comeback going next Tuesday. Conservative weak sisters like Kathleen Parker and David Brooks can turn their pens in another direction. Tonight, they’ve been silenced.

Sen. Obama had re-opened the gender gap. I’m betting that Gov. Palin’s performance tonight will start shrinking that gap again. Here’s another of Patrick’s astute observations:

A major contributing factor to conservative despair these last two weeks is that the fear that the Palin choice would be defined as a warped historical error. Conservative and grassroots leverage over the party would be gone, at least for the foreseeable future. Sarah was our gal, and if she messed it up, it would be a long time before the conservative narrative about the future of the GOP would be trusted again. Meanwhile, conservatives were being asked to depart from principle in supporting the bailout. It was a wrenching and sobering couple of weeks.

Just as with her brilliant RNC speech, Palin did not let us down. And once again, she becomes the hope of the ticket and a standardbearer for the young guns who include Jindal, Portman, Cantor, McCarthy, Ryan, and many more.

Palin can no longer be defined as a liability in any meaningful political or analytical sense. Her claim to leadership in the next Right stands stronger than ever.

What the GOP needs more than anything is an Army of Patricks. Mr. Ruffini understands grassroots activism. He also understands the middle class. If there’s anything the conservative movement desperately needs, it’s a nonpopulist appeal to the middle class. Patrick gets it. Sarah is our leader but Patrick is the sergeant that’s moving the troops into all the right places.

Of all the opinions I read tonight, I laughed most at Jeremy Lott’s observations:

Going into the debate, the expectation on foreign policy issues was that Sarah Palin would be out of her depth. Yet it was Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who seemed like he needed a life preserver. Biden’s problem is that there are deep differences between his record and Barack Obama’s on the most important policy issue of this election: the Iraq war. Obama was against it from the start. Biden was for it and then pushed the three-quasi-state (partition) solution that was rejected in favor of the surge, the approach that John McCain supported. “Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq,” Palin charged of Obama’s proposal for a phased, timed withdrawal. Biden didn’t mount an effective reply. My sense is that he didn’t expect Palin to punch very hard on foreign affairs. What he got was a purse full of quarters aimed right his unnaturally white teeth.

BINGO. Sen. Biden should’ve remembered that the difference between a pit bull and an Alaskan hockey mom is the lipstick. Calling Gov. Palin feisty or combative is understatement. It’s apparent that people are getting in the bad habit of misundestimating Gov. Palin. That’s a bad habit to get into.

Check back Friday morning for a more polished summary of the debate. That’s a post I’ll thoroughly enjoy.

UPDATE: This morning’s must visit is Jim Hoft’s post from the Palin postgame rally in St. Louis. Checking out the pictures is essential.

Technorati: Debates, Sarah Palin, Hockey Mom, Pit Bull, Foreign Policy, Conservatism, Middle Class, Bobby Jindal, Rob Portman, Eric Cantor, Election 2008

Cross-posted at California Conservative