Who Won the VP Debate?

Overall, it was a good night for both Veep candidates!

Sarah Palin didn’t completely eff up and showed us she had some brain cells, post the Katie Couric bafoonary.

Joe Biden didn’t go postal and suffer oopsy diarrhea mouth as some political pundits expected.

But, two polls, one conducted by CNN, the other by CBS, declared Joe from Scranton, PA the winner.

In a CNN poll of 611 who watched the debate, sampling error of 4 points, 51% gave the debate to Biden, 36% to the gov from Alaska.

CBS and Knowledge Networks surveyed a ‘nationally representative poll’ of 473 uncommitted voters to get their immediate reaction to the Veep debates.

Immediate is good cuz that means no talking head or pundit influence, right? Sounds like a gut check to us!

Who won the debate? Biden won the CBS poll with 46% of the vote. Sarah nabbed 21%, but 33% said it was a tie.

Good news for low expectations Sarah.

Overall, her image improved according to CBS’s surveyed people.

55% have a better opinion of Palin. 14% say they have a worse opinion and 30 % said their opinion hasn’t changed.

Joe also improved his image in the CBS poll. 53% have a better impression of Joe. A far lower percentage than Sarah’s average said they have a worse opinion of the Delaware senator at 5%, while 42% said they debate did not change their opinion.

On an interesting note, CBS also asked survey participants to rate the Veep candidates on their knowledge of important issues before AND after the debate.

For the gov, 43% said she was knowledgeable before the debate. After, 66% said she was knowledgeable. Not too shabby.

As for Joe, pre-debate 79% of CBS’s people said he was knowledgeable. After the debate? 98% said he was knowledgeable.

Dayum, Joe! Close to perfect!

Thoughts?

[Images via WENN.]