Everything you might have missed (or want to relive) between the first and last debates:

Last night’s Saturday Night Live open, about the VP debate:

From DailyKos, your guide to what’s going through her head during those long pauses:

Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart

Amy Sullivan reports on an all-female focus group’s reaction in Colorado:

“I’d like to have lunch with Sarah,” said one married woman, “but have Joe running my country.” Another agreed: “I think Sarah Palin is cute as a button and is good in sound bytes, but she just is not ready.” Before the debate, only 10 of the women believed Palin was not ready to be vice-president or president; by the end of the evening more than half of them (21) shared that concern. The economy has been the number-one issue for women voters—particularly unmarried women—throughout the campaign season, and that held true for this focus group as well. And on that point, they were much more impressed by Biden’s ability to talk about the economy and relate to the concerns of middle-class voters. Before the debate, 14 women preferred Biden over Palin on the economy, but that number climbed to 23 afterward. A similar shift took place on the question of which candidate they trusted to handle health care—9 women initially preferred Biden, but that number more than doubled to 20 over the course of the evening.

Krugman digs up the source of that closing Palin quote about the ongoing need to defend our liberties.  It’s from a Ronald Reagan ad against Medicare–a program most Americans today would rather expand than end in the name of “freedom.”

First impressions: No major gaffes on either side, except maybe the part where Palin endorsed Cheney’s view on the role of (and rules governing) the VP.  I don’t think she really understood the question.  No totally obvious deer-in-the-headlights moments, though.  I thought the times when Palin called Biden naive just made her look silly.  Biden did a good job of never seeming remotely condescending, treating Palin as his equal–almost to a fault.  He did ramble on in his answers a bit, not making his points as clearly and concisely as the debate format requires.  In contrast, Palin often seemed much more to the point in her responses, though those rarely had much to do with the question that was just asked.  At least she acknowledged (out loud) at the beginning that she had no intention of answering the questions.  Throughout the debate, she did not look like an experienced, steady hand–but she managed not to look like a complete amateur, either.

All in all: Nothing to see here.  Back to Obama and McCain.

The video is below.  When asked why he won’t agree to postpone the debate(s), Obama points out that the men who would be President should be able to do two (or more!) things at once.

Is McCain trying to seem even older than he is?  James Fallows proposes one potential response from voters:

The candidate who wants to quash any suspicion that he is not quick enough, not vigorous enough, or not multi-tasking enough to handle a job that poses a new challenge every minute, is essentially asking for everyone to take things a little slower so he can concentrate?

Slate’s John Dickerson via Twitter just now:
“McCain suspending campaign to handle econ.crisis. Debate prep. apparently not going that well. I tried this with papers in college but wow.”

This is still the real world and not some elaborate episode of Punk’d, right?