"I know that the other ticket opposed this surge, in fact, even opposed funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama voted against funding troops there after promising that he would not do so," she said. "And Senator Biden, I respected you when you called him out on that.
For his part, Senator Biden chose to rarely address Palin personally, which was to be expected after some Republicans had levelled charges of sexism against the Obama campaign, and given Senator's Biden's reputation as being tough and tenacious, sometimes too much so.
But the Senator didn't pull any punches when condemning the bulk of McCain's proposals for America (though he praised McCain personally), repeatedly linking him to the George W Bush administration, which an overwhelming majority of Americans consider a failure.
On a question about a possible withdrawal from Iraq, Biden hammered home this point. "Barack Obama offered a clear plan (for withdrawal). Shift responsibility to Iraqis over the next 16 months. Draw down our combat troops. Ironically the same plan that Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq and George Bush are now negotiating. The only odd man out here, only one left out is John McCain," he said.
Senator Biden went so far as to call the Iraq war a fundamental difference between the two tickets. "We will end this war, John continues to tell us that the central war on terror is in Iraq," he said. "I promise you if an attack comes on the homeland it's going to come as our security services have said. It's going to come from Al Qaeda planning in the hills of Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's where they live, that's where they are, that's where it will come from."
Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Exclusive: Barack Obama's letter to Dr Singh
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