Vice Presidential Candidates Hold Their Own in Closely Watched Debate

Polls this week show a marked bump for the Democratic ticket as the economy continues to worsen. Thursday's debate moderator, PBS’s Gwen Ifill, opened the debate asking if lawmaker wrangling over a massive Wall Street rescue bill represented the best or worst of Washington.

Senator Biden, who voted for the bill in the Senate, responded that it was a necessary evil because of the failed policies of the last eight years under the Bush administration. He added that his running mate, Senator Obama, had pushed for additions to the bill that added oversight and some help for homeowners and taxpayers.

Governor Palin distanced the current Republican ticket from the Bush administration by reminding people that her running mate, Senator John McCain, had called for reform of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae two years ago, that she claimed would have held off the current economic crisis.

Iraq and Afghanistan

	The candidates argued about whether or not Afghanistan was the central front of the War on Terror.

The two tickets have sparred several times about whether or not there should indeed be a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, and whether Iraq or Afghanistan is the frontline in the War on Terror, and last night was no exception.

Palin maintained that there could not be a timeline for withdrawal of the troops in Iraq stating that the end of the war and the winning of the war will come when Iraq has a stable and secure government.

Biden disagreed, insistent that the real front in the war on terror is Afghanistan and Pakistan. He argued resources should go there instead of Iraq, claiming that the U.S. government had spent more in Iraq in three weeks than in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001.

Education

	Debate moderator and NewsHour correspondent Gwen Ifill did not ask about education policy, but both candidates talked about their education positions.

Biden called for more direct funding to early education and to No Child Left Behind.

Palin pointed out that many of her family members are teachers. She also urged more flexibility for No Child Left Behind and the need to "put more of an emphasis on the profession of teaching." However, neither candidate directly explained their full ideas on education nor how they were going to pay for them.

Agreements

	Biden and Palin agreed on a few ideas, like supporting a no-fly zone over Darfur in southern Sudan.

They also agreed over support for Israel with Palin calling Israel the “strongest and best ally” in the Middle East and Biden calling himself a personal friend to Israel.

Darfur was also a point of agreement as they both fully support imposing a no-fly zone over southern Sudan in an effort to end the genocide in Darfur. Governor Palin even pointed to her record of divestment from Sudan while she was Governor of Alaska.

What do the pundits say?

	Historian Michael Beschloss said Palin got through the debate without saying anything damaging, while Biden showed his human side.

Biden, with his 26 years in the Senate, is known to be armed with facts and statistics but can sometimes be wordy and is prone to verbal gaffs. Supporters of both sides rejoiced as neither candidate committed a huge error and most pundits said they came out better than they went in.

But author and historian Michael Beschloss, scholar in residence at George Mason University, says they did not come out equally matched.  Palin “got through without saying something that would damage her in the way that some of these interviews that she's done with Katie Couric and others have done during the last week," he said on the NewsHour "But I think Biden gave the sense of someone who's a little bit more human, a lot more willing to confess human error.”