It’s the wee hours after the Joe Biden v. Sarah Palin debate, and boy am I spent. In case you missed the Sexist live blog of the Veep showdown, allow me to recap: There were no major flat-on-their-face, waking-up-in-a-pool-of-their-own-vomit, bloated-purple-dead-on-a-toilet moments for either candidate, and for that, schadenfreudists everywhere give the debate a collective “Meh.”

Palin pointed out that it’s onler her fifth week in the national spotlight, and she showed a marked improvement from last week’s showing. While in the Katie Couric interviews, Palin appeared uninformed and unprepared, here, she appeared uninformed and prepared. She learned how to bullshit, and boy, did she lather lipstick on that pig.

Actual pro-woman candidate Biden was fine throughout, but he only managed to let his particular strengths shine through at the end. His personal story, fuck all politics, was the debate’s one real moment, and it was the only thing that could silence Palin’s persistent posturing about being more middle class, accessible, relatable, and real. Biden has a record, too, Palin, but he also has this quirky talent of being able to answer the questions that are asked of him. In the end, Biden picked up considerable steam. [Live-blogging onlooker The Sexist, on the other hand, found even simple subject-verb constructions difficult as the event wound down].

Throughout, both candidates got caught in that same political eddy—-they both kept (1) trying to out-Mainstreet, out-Middle Class, and out-kitchen table each other while (2) trying to name-drop for their presidential honies as much as possible. The reason VP debates are so fascinating is because the two candidates form the bizarro-world of the Presidential election—-the tangential side-show to the main event. But it’s also why they can get annoying and irrelevant. After the first 90-minute presidential debate, I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to sit through another one; now, I’m a little bit hungry for more of that Obama/McCain stability.