Going into tonight’s debate between Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, many questions were yet to be answered.

The main questions were whether Palin could overcome her negative performance in recent media interviews, including Katie Couric's interview (made known to every single teenager in America through Tina Fey's portrayal on "Saturday Night Live"), and whether she would be able to handle a debate with an experienced politician the likes of Biden.

Many believed that she wouldn’t be able to perform and might have to forgo her spot next to John McCain and go back to her igloo in Alaska (sorry for anyone who has an attachment to Alaska).

When I thought about this debate beforehand, I thought that Palin was going to crumple under the pressure of the national spotlight. That she would make misstatement after misstatement and further move John McCain away from the White House.

But like many others, after watching tonight’s debate I was surprised that she did as well as she did. She did not make a fool of herself and did not make (many) factual mistakes and also had a folksy appeal and a little twinkle in her eye.

However, Joe Biden definitely won the debate hands down. He was precise in his points and gracious in his remarks toward Palin.

It's obvious that Biden could have gone all over Palin and criticized her till the troops come home from Iraq, but he had the restraint to hold back. He bested her on every single issue but that might be arguable because after an hour of Palin's high-pitched, folk-oriented voice, everything doesn't sound too good.

I'm clearly not a big fan of Gov. Palin, but tonight she showed that she is able to perform under pressure and put out a good product (no matter how practiced and rehearsed it was). We will just have to see from here on if Sarah Barracuda can keep up the appeal from this debate and help out the campaign attract undecided voters. If she can, it will definitely be an interesting election and one that will be in the AP history classes of our own children.