Polls Peg Biden As Big Winner

ST. LOUIS: Of course, the Republicans who came to Thursday night's vice presidential debate between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin to pronounce Palin the winner are doing so.

And Democrats who came to spin for Biden are offering their two cents.

But what did the voters think?

CNN asked debate watchers: "Regardless of which candidate you happen to support, who do you think did the best job in the debate - Joe Biden or Sarah Palin?"

The results:

Biden -- 51 percent

Palin -- 36 percent

Biden's favorable rating moved up to a remarkable 69 percent.

An HCD Research survey was equally devastating for Palin's proponents.

Democrats said by an 87-11 margin that Biden prevailed.

Republicans favored Palin in a narrower 80-19 split.

And what of those sought-after independents?

Sixty-nine percent scored the debate for Biden. Just 31 percent picked Palin.

Comments (20)

1. The question seems to be: why did those 11 (or 11% of) Democrats not favour Biden? Did substance and policy lift them to Palin? Why did the 18 (or 18% of) Republicans give it to Biden? Did substance therefore trump partisan prejudice?

   Or do Democrats like the policies on offer by Palin: "drill, baby, drill" off-shore and anywhere; $40Billion for a natural gas pipeline to a hungry somewhere. She says US hands make nukes "safe, stable ...weaponry". She is for (the myth of) US "exceptionalism". She sees "bombing villages" and killing civilians (in Afghanistan) not as Obama sees it, but as "fighting terrorists or defending democracy", just like the Iraq war. She gained experience in "a huge state". So maybe she can fight the "Texas Taliban" (the Enrons of her world) since she said she would fight "corruption in Wall St" and oil multinational handouts.

   Or was it style that won her cross-party support in those polls?

   Posted by bazdicoot at 10/03/2008 @ 01:04am

2. I am a veteran of the US Army(retired) and I must confess that Senator Mccain made a big mistake chosing this lady as his running amte. She did NOT answer any relevant question and even told the moderator that she was not going to answer a question she knew well she couldn't. This lady was always reading fron her notes, just like McCain and did not have her facts straight. To think that she could some day become Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces is scaring. But, I guest that to the Republican party "base" she is a darling. She has the same qualities of GW; they cannot utter a sentence some they use the folksy talk to come across like one of us. Well Iam tired of these folks dumming down our nation, I fought in several conflicts and I will not vote for anhyone whom belittle our nation with that type of grammar and speach. listen, "Joe sixpack" cannot afford the six pack anymore due to GW policies, so from now on he is "Joe Three Pack".

   Posted by Gusto at 10/03/2008 @ 01:06am

3. Posted by Gusto at 10/03/2008 @ 01:06am

   Joe Three Pack. I love you for that. Hope you will forgive me, but it is way too good not to steal. :)

   Posted by Pogge at 10/03/2008 @ 01:09am

4. Yes, good one "Joe three-pack". When did US political debate have "middle class" and only "the rich" or aristocrats to consider? Is that what happens when "working families" stops being the buzz word for swing voters from all economic brackets above the underclass but below the non-working families up top; and sending other folks' kids off to war?

   Posted by bazdicoot at 10/03/2008 @ 01:39am

5. The question seems to be: why did those 11 (or 11% of) Democrats not favour Biden?

   Must be the closet Lieberman's-- probably impressed that she didn't really fuck up as bad as we all sort of hoped she would. It's that liberal Gwen Ifil! If only Katie Couric had moderated.

   Posted by FcukReagan at 10/03/2008 @ 01:51am

6. The few times I drifted off to snooze during the debate, I quickly kept awaking upon only hearing the exchange and dreaming that Biden was actually debating with a 16 year old... It finally occurred to me that it was her voice and annunciating-- it just sounds so cute. Sans barely any substance and the visuals, she's 16.

   Posted by hsuBfools at 10/03/2008 @ 02:29am

7. Posted by hsuBfools at 10/03/2008 @ 02:29am |

   Sounded more to me like a cartoon character... a caricature of herself.

   Posted by FcukReagan at 10/03/2008 @ 02:42am

8. A quick observation and comment before people get too excited: The "sought-after" demographic is not "Independents", but "Undecideds" (which can come from any of the three categories of Reps, Dems and Indies).

   And the real question for Undecideds is not who won the debate, but whether the debate shifted them toward one candidate or the other. John Kerry, for example, won all three debates against Bush, and yet still couldn't get enough voters to come over.

   In those respects, it seems that CNN had a chance to give us real substantive feedback for the debate, and instead gave us typically useless horse-race statistics.

   Posted by DrewHarris at 10/03/2008 @ 03:34am

9. I had a kind of dichotomous experience tuning in to this debate.

   I tuned in by radio driving home from work and heard about a half hour of it; once home I watched another half hour via live streaming.

   Without the visuals as a distraction, I was impressed by the (for him) conciseness of Biden's responses.

   His discourses are usually fairly well drawn out, the stuff only a mother and a post-doc fellow could love.

   The fact that he has pretty much to the point, tossing in stats where appropriate, I think set JB apart - from himself.

   Palin - in what I assume was an attempt to sound folksy - sounded more like a yokel that fell off the turnip truck on the way to the state fair.

   "Darn right" isn't particularly (vice or) presidential. Maybe it works in Wasilla, but at the national level, you shouldn't sound like someone running for royalty of the senior Prom.

   In doing so, she managed to avoid just about every question directed to her and toss out mindless platitude after mindless platitude.

   With the visuals added in, my sense of Biden was tempered only by his need to flash that weird grin with his false teeth. Someone ought to talk to him about that.

   Palin became unwatchable in short order - the head flips, the eyelash batting, that vacuous smile - yech. I want nothing further to do with this person.

   All in all, I think Biden did what he needed to do and Palin tried hard.

   Posted by skeletonman at 10/03/2008 @ 07:19am

10. There may be a few SNL skit lines out of this performance.

    I'm not going to answer your question because there are "bullets" my handlers want me to say before I can go home.

    Also, the creativity given to the Veep by those fellas who wrote the constitution. What was that all about?

    Posted by cumchu at 10/03/2008 @ 07:29am

11. A few? Tina Fay is going to have to have someone massage her face after all the twitches and winks she has to do.

    Posted by ankcdisney at 10/03/2008 @ 08:17am

12. Candidate debates will always be overrated as a source of information about the candidates so long as they are allowed by the moderators to avoid questions and to spiel their rote-memorized talking points. McCain-Obama debates do that to a minimum, and that's what made them so, er, tolerable, but these two -- whew! Ah, well...

    Posted by barnesgene at 10/03/2008 @ 08:25am

13. Since so much of this is about posturing and spin, the debate sponsors should have replaced moderator Gwen Ifill as soon as the right wing attack machine let it be known they would be on the watch for "bias" because she's writing a book about Obama.

    The result was that Palin was completely of the hook as far as being pressured to actually answer any questions directly, since Biden was already prohibited from even addressing her complete vacuousness because that would have been "condescending".

    The result was a Republican campaign commercial. And Joe still slaughtered her.

    Posted by MyParadigm at 10/03/2008 @ 09:24am

14. she indeed managed to string together an almost comprehensible string of conservative/mccaino talking points and did not look like a complete ignoramus.

    given plenty of time and coaching, as well as a good idea of the questions to be asked and she appears eminently capable of competantly spewing forth pre-approved talking points in an almost meaningful manner.

    sit down with her and start asking off the cuff questions and i think we se the real mrs. mooseburger...

    almost as mushmouthed and faux "joe sixpacky" as the trust fund wonder figurehead manchurian candidate himself!!!!

    why do people want to elect folks as depressingly average, ignorant, and incompetant as themselves?

    misery loves company and there aint no pride like stupid pride...

    Posted by dexter666 at 10/03/2008 @ 09:41am

15. You know, I'll probably still vote for Obama, cause I'm still not comfortable with McCain, but you watch his VP and you can't help but want to see her succeed. She didn't get where she is just cause she's a woman, nor does she lean on the fact that she is. She doesn't succeed because her peers want to claim allegiance to "diversity". She's where she is because of who she is, but wait... She's conservative: She's not like Boxer or Pelosi or Clinton. Shouldn't she be barefoot and pregnant somewhere at home, reading National Inquirer and exhibiting family values? National Office is for the other enlightened ones, right?

    AAAAAAAAAnnnttttttt! (buzzer sound)

    Wrong.

    Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 10/03/2008 @ 09:53am

16. Posted by ankcdisney at 10/03/2008 @ 08:17am

    I usually crash before Saturday Night comes on....but I may stay up just to see Tina.

    It's going to be a hoot, you betcha. Bless her heart, durn it!

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/03/2008 @ 10:10am

17. It is sad, sad day for American, the Mc Cain campaign attacked the mediator (their usual MO) so Gwen could not call Palin on the fact she DID NOT answer the debate questions, and if Biden did he would have been called a sexist. So,she just rambled on with a part memorized, part reading of her notes, of the prepared for her talking points script, remember she was once on TV she does know how to work a camera. We still have no idea what this woman knows or thinks, she is NOT prepared to be VP.

    Posted by Floridawoman at 10/03/2008 @ 10:32am

18. The polls, the polls...

    NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!! NO BAILOUT!!

    Posted by bleedingheart at 10/03/2008 @ 10:46am

19. Sure, Biden won the debate, but facts have a liberal bias. The task for Palin was to present herself as having the <i>je ne sais quois</i> to be president.

    I am a bit worried with the thinking that Joe Three Pack (regards, Gusto) would vote Joe Three Pack to replace Cheney in the veep's office when he likely would not want Joe Three Pack to replace Joe Gibbs in Joe Gibbs racing.

    As for Governor Palin, maybe she isn't the great candidate McCain thinks she is: more than 50% of the Alaskans who voted for governor in 2006 cast their vote for somebody else.

    Posted by nathanhale at 10/03/2008 @ 11:29am

20. I think if one looks at the substance of the debate it leaned heavily toward Biden, the "performance" was hers', at least in the first half. The polls indicate the public at large is keying in on substance, realizing this women could be president. I was sent an email by someone who also only listened to the debate, seeing only the last last fifteen minutes visually. He said the same thing. Just listening to it made if much more of a nightmare for her, but he could clearly see how the visuals could affect people opinion as it gets in the way of the real debate. A real deabte which did no happen because she did not debate she managed quite well to get in talking points while avoiding answering a good number of questions.

    Gwen did a very poor job of following up on questions, a wonderful journalist it is sad that she allowed herself to be intimidated.

    Posted by nowickedwitch at 10/03/2008 @ 1:00pm