I think both of them did "o.k." at best. Biden was 'presidential' and/or 'stuffy' depending on how you want to say it. Palin was 'typical mom' and/or not very 'professional' which is good or bad depending on your view.

I think the fact that Palin did as well as she did was a relief for the reps and since they were really just hoping she wouldn't screw up too much. She did some damage control by not answering any questions and kept to her script. She was well coached and it showed.

Biden met expectations and gave the dems exactly what they expected. The strategy of not going after her and only focusing on McCain didn't really help or hurt the dems. I think if he would have went after her and got her to speak unscripted then it would have been a much more interesting debate.

Bottom line, nobody did well - Palin just did much better than expected. I don't know how many people got swayed one way or the other based on this debate. I think the only group that may have been impacted are some people who are/were planning on voting Obama only because Palin is so bad. Maybe she showed that she's not as bad as they thought.