So, Sarah Palin pulled a competent, almost coherent performance out of the bag against the poor Joe Biden last night.

I think the public will consider her first half pretty awful, with the second half of the debate putting Biden on the back foot. On balance, I would still have preferred to be the senator from Delaware, since he did seem a little steadier under fire.

The chairperson was pretty awful, with all the finesse of a primary school teacher, and the overall impression was of a debate nobody actually thought we’d be paying attention to, which seems somewhat baffling in this contest.

I think Matt Frei’s blog on the BBC website captures it best; whilst nobody expected Sarah Palin to win the election last night, she could have lost it. She didn’t. The city financiers who would dearly love McCain in office may have done that already.