Election Debates’ expert international panel has awarded the vice presidential debate to Joe Biden in a 6-1 split decision.
Judges Jason Jarvis, Ray D’Cruz, Andy Hume, Ian Lising, Praba Ganesan and Neill Harvey-Smith gave the debate to Biden, while Tommy Tonner gave the debate to Palin.
Judges were divided in their assessment of the closeness of the debate. Ray D’Cruz and Neill Harvey-Smith gave Biden a decisive 12-point win (in debating terms, suggesting a very one-sided debate). Andy Hume, Ian Lising, Praba Ganesan and Jason Jarvis gave 7, 7, 6 and 5 point margins respectively, suggesting a clear win to Biden. Tommy Tonner assessed the debate to be closer, a 1 point margin.
Election Debates provides indepedent assessment of election debates through the application of objective rules of debate. Our analysis is free from political spin and media bias.
Read the individual comments and scores of the judges below. To learn more about how our judges assess debates, read here.
Read the debate transcript here.
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