PALIN ROCKS IN VICE-PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

She was energetic. She was positive. She was focused, articulate, and quick on her feet. She was funny. And she spoke plainly and directly to the American people in the language they understand.

Governor Sarah Palin proved her detractors to be about 3 cards shy of a full deck in Thursday night's Vice-Presidential debate with Joe Biden. They were 100% wrong about her. She hit it out of the park.

Perhaps never before in modern history have expectations been so low for a Vice-Presidential candidate based upon skewed, edited TV interviews with talking head teleprompter readers, only to discover that not only was she severely and mistakenly underrated but she could stand as an equal with one of the most experienced and long-serving Senators in Washington.

She stood toe to toe with Joe. And at first it appeared several times that even Joe didn't know what to do with her. He seemed taken aback by her strong performance.

There is no doubt that in this debate Sarah Palin showed the country that she is qualified and able to be an effective Vice-President.

In terms of style, substance, debating skills, and articulating the policy of the McCain-Palin ticket, she won this debate hands-down.

Biden certainly made no major gaffes to speak of, although his portrayal of his voting record is questionable. He certainly misrepresented McCain's record. This is part of the normal spin of career politicians.

The problem with Biden is that he has been around for so long in the Senate (even 10 years longer than McCain) that he can pick and choose which of his votes he wants to emphasize, conveniently leaving out the major story that lurks in his other votes.

And that story is one of a Senator who is rabidly pro-abortion although he is Catholic, a tax-and-spend liberal who wants to raise taxes on the very entities in America that can pull us out of the present crisis, a crusading anti-gun bigot, and a staunch opponent of America's ability to use its own energy resources.

Biden supported the offshore drilling ban for over 20 years, forcing us to rely on foreign oil.

And this is not to mention that average Americans have often been put off by Biden's tendency to engage in 'Senate-speak.' Palin, on the other hand, speaks from the heart as one American to the many Americans.

The consequence? Since the mainstream media and Democratic operatives placed so much emphasis on this debate and raised the stakes to stunningly high levels, we can expect Palin's stellar performance to give the McCain-Palin ticket a boost in the polls.

Normally the Vice-Presidential debate does not effect support for the top of the ticket in a major way. This time is different simply because Palin's detractors made it so important, believing she would stumble.

But it backfired. The opposition raised the stakes and lost. She won big, and thus, McCain will enjoy the benefit in the polls.

Obama and Biden lost this round. But the biggest losers of all are the talking head teleprompter-readers at CBS, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, and CNN, along with their partners in crime at the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, and Newsweek.