Sarah Palin delivers an adequate performance against Joe Biden in the vice-presidential debate

UNDER normal circumstances a vice-presidential debate is a snooze. Voters care about the top of the ticket. Unless the running-mate goes berserk, all will be well. But the conventional wisdom goes out the window when one of the candidates is a culture warrior in collapse. The past few weeks have been hard on Sarah Palin, the running-mate of John McCain. In one disastrous interview the Republican vice-presidential candidate was unable to name a Supreme Court decision other than Roe v Wade. So interest in the debate on Thursday October 2nd between Mrs Palin and Joe Biden, the running-mate for Barack Obama, was unusually high. Republicans girded themselves for grim news. Democrats were cautiously optimistic. Some sensed a trap. Mr Obama’s campaign manager insisted that Mrs Palin was “one of the best debaters in American politics.”

The good news for the McCain campaign is that Mrs Palin was confident and assertive, and made no big errors. The bad news is that a mediocre performance counts as good news. But they will take what they can get at this point. ...