“Where was this woman during her interview with Katie Couric?” asks David Brooks in his New York Times column today.

Which woman? You know, the one that didn’t fall flat on her face.

Sarah Palin did not fall flat on her face. And by that token she apparently succeeded in the Vice presidential debate.

This is the first presidential election I will vote in.

And I find it very scary that “not falling flat on your face” is regarded as an acceptable passing grade for vice president.

“Even if expectations hadn’t been in the basement Sarah Palin did quite well last night” writes Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post

In Debate, G.O.P. Ticket Survives a Test was the headline for the New York Times

Women on Palin: Even critics say she delivers headlined MSNBC.

What exactly did she deliver? That she didn’t embarrass the ticket. And that’s good enough to be Veep?

MSNBC quoted Dianna Boucher, 50, who owns a mobile notary business in Wasilla, Alaska. She said recent media portrayals of Palin have been biased and inaccurate. She said the Sarah Palin on the stage Thursday was the woman she sees at the airport and in grocery stores.

And why is the woman who you see at the airport and grocery stores immediately qualified to be vice president? (No matter, she doesn’t know all the details said Joe Lieberman reassuringly. That is apparently her strength.)

“On Thursday night, Palin took her inexperience and made a mansion out of it, “ writes David Brooks. Sounds a bit more like a house of cards to me, but no matter.

“I was very pleased with Sarah Palin’s performance. I thought Joe Biden was going to eat her alive and then turn her inside out,” said Martha Reed, 50, a Republican who works as an internet media coordinator from Pittsburgh in the same article on MSNBC.

Umm, if he had he would have immediately been the bullying man picking on that nice winking lady from Alaska.

I think Sarah Palin did women a huge disservice at the debate. Basically it was spun so that any real attack on her qualifications would immediately lead to cries of sexism. When Dan Quayle ran against Lloyd Bentsen he was asked not once but three times about why he thought he was qualified to be vice president. In this debate Biden was constantly warned about not appearing too condescending to her and alienating women. He practiced with Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm to get his body language right.

What’s condescending is the notion that somehow we needed to give Palin a break because she’s a folksy hockey mom from Alaska who couldn’t be pressed too hard.

This is as close to a job interview as she’s going to have.

What’s condescending is saying Biden won the debate (CNN’s insta-poll: Biden, 51 to 36. CBS survey of uncommitted: Biden, 46 to 21. Fox : Biden 61, Palin 39.) and then in the same breath saying Palin didn’t lose (because she didn’t fall flat on her face.)

What did she win? Miss Congeniality? She looked like a reasonably well-prepped fairly uninformed ordinary person who’d just won a Reality Show where you get to be President for a day. ( I watched Project Runway right after that. Those contestants were being grilled much more than Palin was. And that was just so they could show their sartorial creations on Bryant Park. )

If Sarah Palin had been a man, do you think she wouldn’t have gotten pummeled for just being vague, refusing to answer questions. Betcha.

Brooks is right when he says “The presidency and the vice presidency once was the preserve of white men in suits.”

Punditry, which come to think of it is also largely the preserve of white men in suits, seemed to go overboard in awarding her some kind of “Aw shucks, she wasn’t too bad” award.

Come to think of it, if Sarah Palin had been a man with the same qualifications would she even be on the ticket?

The only good thing was she didn’t try to shamelessly appropriate the women who’d voted for Hillary Clinton. No more reference to the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.

Then Biden might have had to say

“Governor, I know Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a friend of mine. Governor, you’re no Hillary Clinton.”

On second thoughts if he had, he’d probably have been accused of being sexist.