Out with the old news, in with the really expensive

[Joe Biden] looked so overwhelmingly competent that it changed my mind about his strategy. He single-handedly accomplished the Obama-Biden campaign goal of setting the American voters' minds at ease. These guys are going to take us in the right direction. The country is safe in their hands.

-Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks

The Sarah Show is over, and its time to get back to our regularly scheduled presidential election already in progress.

The vice presidential debate last night went spectacularly for Joe Biden. He stayed on point, he answered the questions in a pointed and intelligent manner, he didn't get suckered into bickering with a combative Sarah Palin - he simply showed the country why he will make an exceptional vice president. Joe Biden came across as a decent, knowledgeable and empathetic figure who effectively neutralized Palin's attempted charm the audience by charming the audience himself (let it be known, also, that as Palin's famous Alask-clan flooded the stage at the end of the debate for the all important "image shot", Biden completely negated the Republican photo-op with the influx of his own crew who immediately mixed themselves into the Palin camp like garbanzo beans in a tossed salad - beautiful).

As expected, the right-wing pundits loved Palin, who did better than expected insomuch as she didn't say anything tremendously stupid, she spat out an endless stream of memorized talking points and there were no uncomfortable "moose-in-the-headlights" moments. Her performance will continue to play well with them and with the hard-core right, but let's be honest here - McCain's campaign could have gone up there and leaned a 5'7" cardboard cutout of Palin up against the lectern and the right-wing would have been in ecstasy. They don't care what she said (or didn't say).

In the real world, the numbers went to Biden.

CBS:

Forty-six percent of [473] uncommitted viewers said Biden won the debate Thursday night, while 21 percent said Palin won. Thirty-three percent thought it was a tie.

Sam Stein reports:

During the course of the debate, CNN was running a viewer response line for uncommitted voters in Ohio. Overall the numbers reflected a very strong performance for Biden. And while Palin scored well, at times, among this crowd, the dial lines indicated that she remains a controversial figure among females in that state.

Biden repeatedly won high accolades on a wide range of topics. His remarks about the personal trials of having a wife and daughter die in a car accident sent responses from both male and females through the roof. His dig at Dick Cheney -- "the most dangerous Vice President in history" -- and his pledge to end the war in Iraq were similarly popular. When he defended Obama from Palin's attacks, he was held in equally high regard.

And from the New York Times:

In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice that shattered the image he created for himself as the honest, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. It was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment.

And so, with all that theater behind us, today the news cycle moves on to the $700 Billion Wall Street bailout package - a topic that resonates much more with most Americans than the veep debate, especially now that the debate is over. The Senate passed the bill laced with pork and earmarks, which rightfully has enraged millions, and will now go back to the House where it will most certainly be sanitized somewhat before being put to a vote. I don't think any of them are going to want to go back and explain to their constituents why there was well over $100 Billion (with a B) in pork barrel spending tacked to a high-profile, massively unpopular emergency spending bill.

It should be noted that every single member of the House of Representatives is up for re-election in exactly 31 days.

Vern Ehlers, the Representative from my district in Michigan is a very popular politician here. He's a long-serving Republican who resonates well with the fiscal and social conservatives that seem to congregate in this part of the state. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the voters here put him on the chopping block for passing a bill that disgusting, however. It should be noted that Mr. Ehlers voted for the passing of the original bill on Tuesday, but that bill, of course, wasn't...er...supersized.

We shall see.