Thanks to the presence of Palin, the matchup was colloquial, too, almost casual at times. When she first stepped onstage and shook Biden's hand, she could be overheard saying: "Nice to meet you. Hey, can I call you Joe?"
Especially when talking about domestic policy, she peppered her remarks with phrases like "Darn right." She declared that "Joe Sixpack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together." She gave a shout-out to third-graders at an Alaska elementary school. At least twice, she winked.
Most strikingly, she seemed to be having a good time - a stark contrast to her recent, damaging interviews with ABC's Charlie Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric, when she came across as stiff, stilted, and fearful, wedded to canned lines and prone to awkward pauses.
The format and pace of last night's debate played to a skill Palin could capitalize on: She studiously avoided answering questions directly, changing the subject with ease. Asked about housing at one point, she gave a confident answer about energy independence.
And unlike Couric, who doggedly pressed at questions Palin had evaded, moderator Gwen Ifill let most of the meandering go. (The effects of the controversy over Ifill's upcoming book, called "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," were hard to determine. Was she easy on Palin? Hard on Biden? She seemed equally deferential to both.)
Palin seemed almost gleeful about this new format, which gave her ample chances to talk directly to the camera. "I like being able to answer these tough questions without the filter even of the mainstream media," she said at one point. That would have made more sense had more questions been tough.
But Palin's strategy had changed, as well: Here, she didn't try to cover up her weaknesses. When Ifill pressed her to name a campaign promise she wouldn't be able to keep, she cheerily answered: "How long have I been at this, five weeks? So there hasn't been a whole lot that I've promised."
