Dick Pleased

Dick Morris thinks Sarah Palin's debate performance was big news.

She showed originality, charisma and sass - a style that is refreshing and different in our politics. She didn't just win the vice-presidential debate, she showed that she belongs with Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton as among the best communicators of our modern political times.

What impressed him so?

Her sallies against big government were brilliantly conceived and well executed. Her line that she didn't understand how Washington worked because politicians vote for something right after they vote against it, for example, was just wonderful.

Another classic came when she bit back at moderator Gwen Ifill and opponent Joe Biden and said she'd answer the questions as she wanted to, not necessarily as they wanted her to do.

Gone, long gone, are the worries about how good or well-prepared Sarah Palin is.

Palin communicates change on a subliminal level.

Most important, she showed how John McCain would bring change to Washington. Would that McCain could articulate his own sense of change as well as his running mate did!

I'm happy to find there's someone else who was put to sleep by Biden.

For his part, Biden sounded like the warmed-over has-been that he is - he seemed to be on downers. Where she was thrilling and exciting, he was hypnotically boring. He seemed like more of the same, while she seemed like a breath of fresh air.

Without trepidation, she tossed aside the Bush years and spoke of the "blunders" in Iraq. She was able to skewer Wall Street and show Republican opposition to the greed there.

Will her performance change the course of this campaign?

Last night's Palin victory will have an immediate impact on the presidential race - arresting McCain's fall and slowing Obama's surge.

The only question is whether it will be enough to reverse Obama's gains of the past week. It might go a long way in that direction.