From a debater's standpoint (I've been one for the past 5 years) Biden won handily. And it's not because Palin didn't say anything important. She stuck to her stump points, and in doing so made her arguments seem more like speeches than responses to the questions. In fact, she responded to so few of the questions that it might as well have been a series of speeches. Even people who liked her side of the debate liked her for her candor and how she talked rather than what see actually said, no one praised her on the content of her talking points. Meanwhile, Biden answered every question before deciding to go off topic in order to respond to her. He stuck to a very standard game plan of attacking McCain and defending Obama, instead of getting sucked into arguments about himself. While he was dry at the beginning, he had a lot of statistics to back up his claims. And when it came to the later debate, he produced emotion that seemed genuine and used some comedic and interesting lines in his arguments to spice them up. While it can be said that both sides had arguments, the only fully supported ones were Biden's, and the only ones that followed the debate were Biden's.
And I'd be happy to respond to the "lies" that dyna says Biden spoke, though I will agree that some of what he said was wrong.
1. The vote he was talking about, McCain did. The reason was that it was attached to something that both senators knew they couldn't vote against. There's no blame on either side.
2. Actually, Obama said he'd be willing to sit with him, not that it would be unconditional. He has said things specifically about Ahmedinijad, mainly that what he's threatened to do makes him a special case for how the U.S. deals with him.
3. Biden's been specific about saying that drilling needs to occur, but that doesn't mean that he has been for offshore drilling at any time. There's plenty of land in the U.S. that has been zoned for drilling, but hasn't been drilled (about 90% of all zoned land for drilling is not being drilled currently). That's why he doesn't want to increase the amount of offshore drills.
4. They did happen to disagree on that, but just because the president is ready to veto something doesn't mean you automatically vote against it and don't hold to your own principles. McCain's vote was because of his own ideas, not the president's.
5. His record for voting against and speaking out against clean coal have been entirely based on how we transport it. He said this in the debate, he even specified what he meant. He's never voted against utilizing clean coal ourselves, or transporting it to countries that use a lot of it.
6. Yeah, he might have been exaggerating, but the number is at least 15. That's enough to make a major statement, whether or not it's 23 is arguing semantics.
7. Actually, the "independent" fact checkers completely ignored Biden's explanation. His explanation, which hasn't been disproven, was that McCain's policy is going to be paid for by taxing the money that would be used for employee health care. That amounts to 12000 dollars of employee earnings (because it gets taken out of their paycheck). The tax credit is for 5000 dollars. That means workers lose 7000 dollars in health care.
8. Palin's even called it a windfall tax. The fact that you say it's not is trying to disprove your own candidate. Reforming the state and revenue taxes doesn't account for how she managed to tax these oil companies. What Biden left out was that in order to make them want to keep drilling in Alaska, she basically sold her state to them, allowing drilling everywhere that wasn't protected.
9. You misheard him. He said the general on the ground in Afghanistan said they couldn't be applied. The NATO commander may have a grasp of the situation there, but no one knows better now about the military situation in Afghanistan than this general. Besides that, the general there actually provided substantive reasons for this, including the fact that so many of our targets are hidden in mountains that make finding them nearly impossible.
10. The one case you've provided was actually talked about by Biden. While McCain did support that regulation, he rejected regulations on pretty much any other area, even with these companies. It's not false when 99 times out of 100 someone decides to vote for something. McCain's made no secret about his love for deregulation. And if you'll take a look at his staff, you'll find people who were not only deeply invested in the companies, but receiving money from them up until about a month ago.
11. Biden also specified on this. He said he gave the vote to authorize Iraq if the UN agreed on it. Given that the UN didn't agree on going to war in Iraq, his vote might as well have been voided. The situation changed when we rejected the UN, and when we found out the actual situation on the ground in Iraq, leading Biden to oppose the war vehemently. The surge didn't prove John McCain right either. This wasn't talked about, but the surge was actually meant to provide political stability for the country, not just stop the insurgency in certain areas. It accomplished the latter, but not the former. And it did so through mass slaughter. Biden and Obama have both been very vocal about the fact that there were other options that would have led to lower death tolls and a more stable Iraq. By the way, 2000 days after Bush said "Mission Accomplished," there is still no stable Iraq, and we even say they can't possibly stand on their own.
12. Wrong. You haven't read their tax plan, that's all what you've been hearing from friends. It encompasses people below $250,000, look it up.
13. The fact that it differs in 2 ways doesn't mean they aren't similar. If you want to try to get him on the issue taht they aren't exactly the same, congratulations, you caught him. It's still closer to that than pretty much anything else presented by other senators.
14. Biden said people in the $250,000 and under brackets wouldn't pay more, and that's true. Bush has been lowering taxes to try and get them back to where they were during Reagan. Obama plans to keep them that low. Is there something I'm missing here?