Palin was careless, reckless, naive, foolhardy...

...and she was generally insulting to the intelligence of the American people.

Here are notes I made at the end of the "debate."

Biden spent a lot of time setting the record straight. He also displayed enormous knowledge of the facts and a clear understanding of the nuances of the issues. Biden scored over and over, but I don't think it will change many minds.

She showed she can memorize lots of text...and she also demonstrated there wasn't a question asked that would get her off the script she was given.

Her memorization was good but awkwardly presented to say the least. Her climate change comment was a little strange to me.

After the first half hour she really got tentative and uncertain of what she should say. Her coaches had obviously told her, "If you don't know the answer or don't want to answer the question, just ignore it and repeat this block of information on McCain's positions." What an insult to the voters!

Biden knows foreign policy cold. There was no way she could keep up with him on that subject. This was embarrassing. Why did she say he is looking backward when he clearly displayed a breadth of knowledge and understanding that no one else in the room had. I was surprised when she actually used the word "proliferation" -- a new word for her. I was impressed that she didn't say, "When the bad guys start throwing those nuclear hockey pucks at us...". Incidentally, did you notice she had no clue what to say on the nuclear trigger question?

If something happens to John McCain, she said she would show her maverick stripes, too, and would pursue things differently, of course. That comment alone should scare the pants off every single person in America.

She also said she hoped the Constitution will allow more authority for the VP should she decide to assert it. What!!?? Thankfully, Joe Biden straightened her out by citing Article 1 of the US Constitution, stated the duties of the VP and made clear for Palin -- and Dick Cheney -- that the VP IS part of the Executive branch. Period. This part was weird.

And when asked to name the worst thing Dick Cheney did, she responded, "I think it was the hunting accident."

With 15 minutes to go, Palin "left the building." She never answered the question, "what is your Achilles heel?" Obviously, this was not a block of text presented to her and memorized in rehearsal. Actually, it could be that she did not understand the question. Maybe Sarah did not understand that Gwen Ifil was asking her to name a personal area of weakness or vulnerability.

SHE WAS A ROBOT...RECITING ALL SHE HAD MEMORIZED...IGNORING THE MODERATOR...DELIVERING BLOCKETTES OF A SPEECH.

Bottom line: she was much better than anyone expected...BUT... on a scale of 1 to 10, Joe Biden scored 9 and Sarah Palin scored 1.5. What does that say? It says she was a disaster.

The only thing that saved her was the perception that she was better than expected. Like the old Peggy Lee song, "Is that all there is?" Or, perhaps I should say, "Is that all we are looking for in a VP?

I don't think we will hear much more about Sarah Palin because everyone finally knows exactly what's in that skirt -- nothin'. She does have beautiful brown eyes (you betcha') and when she bats those over sized lashes (gonna wow ya'), she starts a veritable breeze in the room. Let's acknowledge she is the cutest VP candidate we've ever had (let's see that wink one more time).

Republicans will ignore the fact that she is absolutely vacuous. There are no brain cells processing incoming information not to mention questions. She has Ronald Reagan's ability to memorize significant blockettes of information that she can recall when she has nothing to say or is unable to respond to a specific question. And that's all the Republican base needs to know.

Democrats, on the other hand, saw what they needed to see, too: she is as much an "empty skirt" as George Bush was an "empty suit." Americans bought that empty suit before and we won't make that mistake again -- no matter how many times she twitches that nose.