Gaffes; expectations, high and low; likeability. That's what some conventional wisdom would have us use as metrics for Thursday's vice presidential debate between Delaware Sen. Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

No, the accurate measure is simply whose performance revealed that person as commander-in-chief material in case tragedy strikes.

There were, to be sure, misleading and false statements aplenty. They ranged from the false assertion by Palin that Biden had long supported John McCain's war policies and her over-simplification of a single Barack Obama vote to withhold war funding. And they included Biden's indication that McCain was offering a tax break solely for oil companies (it's part of his overall corporate tax cuts) and that McCain opposed a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty that actually has never been before the Senate for ratification (because of strong GOP resistance).

Biden was most effective when he asserted that there is very little difference substantively from McCain's policies and President George W. Bush's. No amount of aw-shucks, down-home speaking from Palin could undercut that point.

But Palin was effective, too. Like Biden, the governor proved herself an able advocate for the top of her ticket. She has a knack for speaking directly to regular people. She connects. And she also seemed to be making the case, at least twice by our count, that the media was somehow unfairly filtering her. That she was, therefore, going to talk directly to America.

No, the problem was not the media; it was that the look Americans got of her recently in some key interviews was too revealing.

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.

But if the gauge is whether Palin could go toe-to-toe and present herself as genuine and an alternative, she clearly did her ticket a favor in this debate.

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