Palin Digs Herself Out

Rachel Maddow said Palin seemed "unemotional" and "inhuman" when she didn't acknowledge Biden's answer about his family tragedy. But she also found Biden "boring."

Andrea Mitchell's bottom line: "She was really becoming a drag on this ticket, and now she's stopped that bleeding."

CNN's insta-poll: Biden, 51 to 36.

CBS survey of uncommitted: Biden, 46 to 21.

Let's dip into the MSM, beginning with the L.A. Times:

"Sarah Palin entered the vice presidential debate in St. Louis tonight facing an electorate increasingly dubious about her readiness for the second-highest office in the nation.

"With a relatively steady performance, the Alaska governor may have helped arrest voters' declining confidence in her candidacy since John McCain first put her on the Republican ticket five weeks ago."

N.Y. Times: "Gov. Sarah Palin made it through the vice-presidential debate on Thursday without doing any obvious damage to the Republican presidential ticket. By surviving her encounter with Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. and quelling some of the talk about her basic qualifications for high office, she may even have done Senator John McCain a bit of good, freeing him to focus on the other troubles shadowing his campaign."

USA Today: "Palin smiled at the camera, winked at the audience and offered a 'shout-out' to her brother's third-grade class at Gladys Wood Elementary School . . . Biden was more serious and senatorial, focused on policy questions he repeatedly referred to as 'fundamental.' "

Washington Post: "One debate will not erase doubts that have been building about Palin's capacity to serve as vice president, but the effect of the encounter may shift the focus away from the sideshow that Palin has become and put it back on the two presidential nominees and what they would do for the country."

Washington Times: "From her opening greeting to her Democratic opponent in the vice-presidential debate -- 'Hey, can I call you Joe?' -- to her pledge to deliver 'straight talk' to voters, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin never looked out of her depth."

New York Post: "Sarah Palin used folksy language, winks, smiles and sharp elbows to try to put seasoned rival Joe Biden on the defensive in last night's vice-presidential debate."