I was just about to do a quick blog on the Palin-Biden debate, but Danny Finkelstein's hit the nail on the head in his blog on TimesOnline:
"The conventional wisdom on last night's debate is that by not losing, Sarah Palin won. I have the opposite view. By not winning Sarah Palin lost.
For a period, it was possible to view the McCain versus Obama election as a toss-up, but we have gone beyond that point. It is no longer a toss-up election.
Obama is decisively ahead. His lead is clear, it is reflected in state races and it is consistent.
McCain's only hope is to shock the race somehow. He succeeded in doing it at the convention. He tried and failed during the bailout crisis. But there aren't very many opportunities to repeat the trick and last night was one of those.
So Sarah Palin needed to win last night. Of course Republicans feared disaster, but avoiding disaster wasn't enough. Avoiding disaster means the race goes on smoothly and serenely.
And if it does that, Obama wins."
In the two remaining Presidential debates McCain has to turn it around or, regrettably, his campaign is finished.
