The Sarah Palin Show, Courtesy of Gwen Ifill

First Hockey Mom Sarah Palin did indeed dominate the "debate" between her and her Democratic opponent Joe Biden. But only because moderator Gwen Ifill let Palin get away with deflecting questions and launching into rehearsed riffs about "greed" on Wall Street and what she'd do about the energy crisis.

Palin offered this revealing view on getting her message out:

"I like being able to answer these tough questions without the filter, even, of the mainstream media kind of telling viewers what they've just heard. I'd rather be able to just speak to the American people like we just did."

But Palin's pre-packaged messages are no improvement over any filtering by the mainstream media. We supposedly got the real deal from her Thursday night, according to these gasps of admiration from Hugh Hewitt and Michelle Malkin. But everything she said, except the "you betcha's," was carefully rehearsed earlier this week in preparation sessions at McCain's home in Sedona, Ariz.

Despite being given complete freedom to say her own thing during the 90-minute evening, Palin didn't quite get the the morning-after verdicts McCain's team was hoping for. A CNN poll had Biden winning 51 to 36.