Despite her stumbles in a couple of recent one-on-one interviews, she was in her element in the debate format, which required brief answers with no time for elaboration. She knows how to connect with a TV audience and was able to relate complex issues to the lives of the middle class - of which she is a card-carrying member.
For his part, Joe Biden refrained from patronizing or talking down to her, which would have been a terrible blunder under the circumstances. Palin's "May I call you Joe?" seemed to set the tone for the evening both for Biden and the onlookers.
Unfortunately, as has been typical of the campaign so far, the substance of the debate bogged down too much in accusations about the records of John McCain and Barack Obama. Both sides are playing loose with facts, and too often the discussion consisted of "He did ..." "Did not." "Did so." The Associated Press used several examples in a fact-checking article the next day.
Palin announced that Obama had voted 94 times to either raise taxes or not cut them. (That's an improvement over similar Republican claims four years ago about John Kerry, whose taxing votes allegedly ran into the hundreds.) But Obama's only been in the Senate less than three years and spent most of that time running for president. There couldn't have been 94 tax bills acted on since January 2005. Of course, most of those votes were either repetitive votes or votes on procedural maters, and some didn't even entail increases. Anyway, Obama advocates cutting taxes for the middle class and rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
Making the connection to today's financial crisis, Biden blamed the economic policies of the Bush years that led to "excessive deregulation." But the deregulation liberal groups are citing - that allowed Wall Street investment banks to create mortgage-related securities - took place in 1999 and had bipartisan support, including that of President Clinton. Biden voted for it.
Palin said Obama had a "plan to mandate health-care coverage and have a universal, government run program." Obama's plan, however, does not mandate coverage for adults. That was a major difference between him and Hillary Clinton, who pointed out that Obama would leave millions of people without coverage.
On the same topic, Biden said McCain's proposed $5,000 tax credit to help families buy health coverage "will go straight to the insurance company." Well yes, it's to buy health insurance. Where else are you going to buy it - at Home Depot?
But the big story seems to be that Palin held her own. Of course, the ability to field questions during a debate is not the same as governing, and there are still plenty of reasons to doubt if she is ready to be vice president. Obama's résumé is slim also, and he has compensated for it only by spending the last four years talking and thinking about national issues.
There is no question that were Palin in the other party, her life would be a great liberal narrative, from her child with Down syndrome to her blue-collar, outdoorsman husband. As it is, she must settle for media commentary that is amazed she is able to talk coherently.