'She Got Out Alive'

Millions of Americans were watching Thursday night’s vice-presidential debate waiting for a demolition derby moment — another crash by GOP running mate Sarah Palin, another serving of raw material for the writers at "Saturday Night Live."

By that standard, she got out alive, though there were white-knuckle moments along the way: questions that were answered with painfully obvious talking points that betrayed scant knowledge of the issue at hand, and sometimes little relevance to the question that had been asked.

John F. Harris and Mike Allen have a thumbs-down assessment of Sarah Palin's performance in last night's debate. Meanwhile, the Obama camp has already put together a fantastic ad from the debate on a moment I highlighted last night, the $5,000 health insurance tax credit for a $12,000 family-by-family increase in health insurance costs. This is a hilariously bad idea that just about nobody knows about—they should put this ad all over Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, and Pennsylvania now that it's too late for McCain to run from it.