Palin's Performance Draws Positive Reviews

Who won? It's the question always asked after debates and while supporters of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin can find polls and pundits today saying their candidate won, many of Palin's previous critics say she saved John McCain's bacon by a stellar performance.

The Drudge Report's poll, with about 393,000 votes cast, shows 70 percent say Palin won. America Online's poll has Palin at 47 percent, Biden at 45 percent.

"Sarah Palin saved John McCain again Thursday night. She is the political equivalent of cardiac paddles," conservative columnist Peggy Noonan, who was caught criticizing Palin in an off-camera moment in early September, wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

"So, who won? On substance, the edge goes to Mr. Biden. On style, Ms. Palin eked out a close win, enormously magnified by the plain fact that she wasn't chased off the stage," wrote editors at The Dallas Morning News.

Meanwhile, Biden, by putting a hold on his gaffe-prone tongue and showing restraint against Palin, helped Barack Obama's campaign, analysts said. One Obama aide told FOX News before the debate started that if all went well for them, most people won't even remember Biden was there.

"I think Biden actually did what he needed to do," Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers said Friday. "He really needed to do no harm ... He didn't really take the bait too much."

But even as many declared Biden the actual winner of the debate, several analysts renewed their praise of Palin and suggested that the first-term Alaska governor's defying expectations is a much bigger moral victory.

"A lot of people, and I include myself in that group, wondered if Sarah Palin was gonna screw up big time. She didn't," said former CBS newsman Bernie Goldberg, a FOX News analyst.

"I think last night she redeemed herself for a couple of very bad weeks," said Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton's former spokesman.

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