Following Senate passage of their new version of the bailout bill Wednesday evening, we were treated to another anti-climactic non-event last night. Palin resuscitated Palin, Biden minded his manners, and nothing earth shattering or even mildly consequential happened.

As predicted in yesterday’s pre-debate post, Gwen Ifill (the moderator) was handcuffed by her apparent conflict of interest, so both candidates took the liberty of giving answers that were nowhere near on point, with Palin utilizing a longer leash, because she needed it.

Ifill’s perfunctory, infrequent, and therefore ineffective attempts to enforce anything resembling a one to one correlation between question and answer didn’t help the undecided voter make a more informed decision. I thought and said Ifill should have bowed out before the debate, and we’re all worse off for her inaction.

So the winner of the debate was Obama, as his lead remains intact, and Palin once again demonstrates McCain’s poor executive decision making abilities. Even when she exceeds expectations, she falls well short of competancy.