The Vice Presidential Debates - LIVE ELECTION DEBATE - TIME
[Jim Poniewozik writes TIME magazine's Tuned In column, about pop culture and society. Karen Tumulty is TIME's National Political Correspondent Michael Grunwald is TIME's National Correspondent]

8:58 PM - KT - Guys, get jealous. I'm blogging from the world's best focus group for this particular event: FORTUNE's Most Powerful Women summit. There are hundreds of very impressive women here. From where I am sitting, I can see Martha Stewart, Sally Ride, Billie Jean King, Meg Whitman ... Well, I'll stop here. And, yes, there's wine. At my little table, we have Christie Hefner and Clinton HHS Secretary Donna Shalala. I've got my fact check covered on those health care questions.

8:59 PM - JP - CNN just introduced their focus group of "uncommitted" voters. There are actually a half dozen black voters in Columbus, Ohio who are still considering voting for John McCain?

9:05 PM - JP - CNN is using their little judges-scorecards on their HD feed again. Three judges gave Palin a point before anyone spoke. She literally got credit for showing up.

9:06 PM - KT - So which will we hear more? Joe Biden mentioning the middle class or Sarah Palin mentioning the “privilege” of getting elected?

9:13 PM - MG - How many times are you allowed to repeat the $42,000 lie before you become a liar?

9:14 PM - JP - Sarah Palin boldly vows to not answer the moderator's questions, if that's what it takes to talk straight to the American people!
9:14 PM - MG - "I may not respond to the questions the way you want as a moderator," which in this case means, "I may not respond to the questions at all." yes.
9:15 PM - KT - Palin’s first shot at Gwen: I may not answer the questions as you or the moderator want to hear...

9:20 PM - MG - OK, Joe--can I call you Joe?--that may be fairness. But it is, in fact, redistribution, no matter what you call it in Scranton.
9:20 PM - JP - Check "Bridge to Nowhere" joke off Biden's to-do list.

9:22 PM - KT - Shalala on Biden’s health care answer: “Nailed it.” Women in this room erupted in cheers. Who knew there were so many Democratic CEOs?

9:23 PM - JP - On CNN, focus-dial groups don't respond well at all to attack lines. Which makes me doubt dial groups that much more. What will we have for dial groups in 2012? Will they be plugged in directly through USB ports in their heads?

9:25 PM - MG - That's clever of Biden to align himself and Obama with Palin's windfall profit tax. I also enjoyed the way Palin said she would have supported the bailout with the enthusiasm of a kid being sent to the principal's office.
9:26 PM - JP - Free money for everybody, just like in Alaska! Now you're talking!
9:27 PM - JP - Fannie and Freddie were rearing their heads! Just like Putin! I bet they saw it first in Alaska.

9:30 PM - JP - Oooh, East Coast politicians! Note to Palin: Pennsylvania and Virginia *are East Coast states*.
9:31 PM - MG - Warning: Substance alert. I'm sorry, I know we're supposed to be respectful, and I know she's proud to be Joe Sixpack, but that is a RIDICULOUS answer about global warming. It obviously matters what causes global warming, because if it's caused by the Boston terriers that are currently curled up on my floor, then we ought to do something about them, and if it's caused by nature, then there isn't a damn thing we can do about it, but if it's caused by carbon emissions, then that's on us, and we better do something about carbon emissions.
9:32 PM - JP - But will "I don't want to argue about the details" work as an answer about the dinosaurs?
9:33 PM - JP - Further to that earlier point about climate change: Palin can give precisely the same answer she gave Couric here, but it sounds much more confident and less nervous in this venue.

9:40 PM - KT - Did Sarah Palin just go beyond McCain’s position on civil rights for gays? I think so.

9:43 PM - MG - Warning: More substance. I hate it when politicians say they're going to do whatever the generals say. Even Bush says this, and to his credit, things have improved in Iraq since he stopped doing whatever his generals were saying and found a new set of generals who would change course. You wouldn't say you'd do whatever the assistant labor secretary says.

9:46 PM - MG - I know I shouldn't be watching those ridiculous CNN lines, but did you see the women get happy ?? when Biden started talking about the central front of the war being outside Iraq?

9:46 PM - JP - Check "stinking corpse" off of Palin's to-do list. also from her list, I think: mention Joe Sixpack & hockey moms, say sth like"see this just shows how not part of Washington I am"

9:51 PM - JP - Love all the talk about Spain in this year's debates. Takes me back to 1898.
9:51 PM - MG - The Spain flap is just a wonderful example of the McCain campaign in action. McCain clearly misheard a question, or thought the interviewer was talking about some Latin American leftist, or whatever. But when you're obsessed with news cycles, you can't admit a mistake. So the kooks around McCain say hell yeah, he meant exactly what he said. And so a non-wingnut politician gets committed to wingut policies.
9:52 PM - KT - Lots of applause here on Biden’s government of Spain line.

9:53 PM - JP - Two American politicians who agree they love Israel on the same stage?! What are the odds?

9:59 PM - MG - Wow. Is that true that we spend more in 3 weeks in Iraq than we've spent in 6 years in Afghanistan? I've never finished a sixpack in my life and I didn't know that.

10:02 PM - MG - "I admit I was the first one to recommend it." And thus prevented genocide. Manfully admitted, Joe! (I do like calling you Joe.)
10:03 PM - MG - Once again, look at those trend lines: the undecided voters loved what Biden said about stopping genocide in Darfur. Seriously, do you think they're really undecided, or did they just want to be on TV?

10:03 PM - JP - Rwanda gets Biden engaged in a way few things have in this debate. I know the general plan was probably to get him to dial it down to 3 or 4, but he works better up at 8 or 9.

10:06 PM - JP - I guess this is what happens when you have three Senators on the national tickets, but "I held hearings" is not a compelling stump line.

10:07 PM - JP - I recall reading that Sarah Palin was planning on attacking Biden heavily. Doesn't seem like it to me. And Biden emphatically doesn't want to attack Palin. So we have two people arguing vociferously about two people who are not in the room.

10:11 PM - JP - "Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again, you're pointing fingers back..." I think we just witnessed the mythical Triple Zinger!

10:12 PM - MG - I keep thinking of that fantasy debate scene from The West Wing where the empty-suit candidate keeps mouthing talking points and Jeb Bartlett jumps in and says: And then what? Again, I know I'm a horrible sexist and elitist and knowledgist for saying this, but I have no idea how Sarah Palin would answer that question after she finishes her talking points. She seems like she's crammed pretty well. And she's given some reasonable answers, like she just did with that line about how she differs with McCain about ANWR. But: And then what?

10:13 PM - KT - Palin on Biden’s wife being a teacher: “Her reward is in Heaven.” Christie Hefner: “Yeah, we don’t want to raise their salaries on Earth.”

10:14 PM - MG - Another pet peeve: Why shouldn't we look back at the past? I'd say the last eight years are pretty relevant right now. What's the line about how the past isn't even past? William Faulkner: The past isn't dead. It isn't even past.

10:18 PM - KT - HUGE applause from the women CEOs on Biden’s line about Cheney being the most dangerous VP in history. You’d think they would like a unitary executive.

10:23 PM - JP - Sarah Palin has a bracelet too. And it says, "Greed and corruption on Wall Street."

10:25 PM - MG - Just curious: What does Joe Biden think was Jesse Helms's benign motivation for being a vile racist? (doubt their judgement but not their motivation)

10:30 PM - MG - This closing statement sounds like she's giving a speech to the College Republicans. We're going to fight for America! We're proud of America! Our freedoms are at risk! It's really amateur hour. And since I think that, the pundits will undoubtedly declare that she's hit a home run.

10:31 PM - JP - @KT: How did the CEOs like Biden's saying he's not running to help out the CEOs?
10:33 PM - KT - @JP: They are loving Joe Biden. They are also loving the guy who is pouring the wine.

10:39 PM - KT - Wrapup post: Palin didn't make any big mistakes, but she also didn¹t reassure that she could handle the presidency. She was earnest and well-prepared.
Biden was as good - and as human - as he has ever been. If we have to pick a winner, it’s Biden. At least, that's what the CEOs seem to think.

10:41 PM - JP - My wrapup: Biden didn't call Palin an offensive name; Palin didn't do Tina Fey doing Tina Palin. By the negative frame in which this debate was set, both candidates succeeded at not doing what they needed not to do. Or something like that.

10:45 PM - MG - Overall: I thought Biden seemed knowledgable and intelligent and passionate and a bit mouthy, which, it just so happens, is pretty much what Joe Biden is. I thought Palin seemed like someone who knew basic Republican talking points--not just because she's crammed, but because she's part of a generation of a Republican politicians trained in basic Republican talking points--but not much more than that. And she did a perfectly good job of emphasizing some of the basic differences between the two tickets on Iraq. What I don't know is whether Average Americans will think she sounded like an Average American, and whether they would consider that a good thing.