the results of the debate: pretty simple, actually

Pundits seem to be having trouble understanding a pretty simple reason for how Sarah Palin could beat expectations and still lose: the expectation was that she would lose so badly that she would humiliate herself. She simply lost convincingly, rather than embarrassingly.

An example from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

In this debate, Biden clearly had a better grasp of the issues. Palin skillfully sidestepped questions she didn’t want to answer from moderator Gwen Ifill and, in so doing, did manage to sidestep that media filter she talked about.

As a voter, I don't care how well she sidesteps questions she can't answer. What concerns me is that she can't answer them, but Biden can.