Debate no 'game-changer,' bloggers say

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Instant reaction in the blogosphere to Thursday night's debate between U.S. Sen. Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was that it was a draw.

Mark Halperin of Time magazine gave both vice presidential candidates a B.

"She had a solid 90 minutes of rapid, confident discourse and kept herself from being the story of the night," Halperin said of Palin.

Biden also did well, Halperin said, avoiding "long-winded, condescending, and self serving responses."

Marc Ambinder, a blogger on Atlantic magazine's Web site, said, "The McCain campaign can now exhale." He said Palin avoided major mistakes and "at times, was positively impressive."

Oliver Burkeman, blogging for The Guardian of London, said he did not expect the debate to be a "game-changer."

"Biden gave the far superior debate performance by any objective standard, of course; far superior to pretty much any recent debate I can call to mind," he said. "But of course that may not be the relevant point: Palin didn't fall apart, and until discussion moved to foreign policy, at any rate, her relentless strategy of talking only about tax cuts and energy policy, peppering her lines with plenty of folksiness, seemed to serve her well."