Two insights which particularly stood out for me as being absolutely spot-on: that it was as if Palin “was being asked to defend her doctoral thesis without having written it”; and the comparison to an actor speaking Shakespeare without knowing what they’re actually saying, because they’re on autopilot.

The latter point explains my gut feeling about Palin’s performance: that she was stringing words together without any true depth of thought or reason behind them. Style, not substance. As opposed to Biden who, as Ebert says, “basically just stood there and said what he thought”. If you haven’t watched the debate, I urge you to do so – and you’ll see exactly what we’re talking about.