I just made it back from Washington University, the site of the 2008 Vice-Presidential Debate. Along with a couple of other friends, I met up with Archpundit and DailyKos’ GoldnI at the new University Center. None of us had credentials to attend the actual debate, but all of us had permission to be on the campus.  After taking a quick tour of the media whirlwind on campus (MSNBC had a stage up next to Graham Chapel, and Archpundit witnessed John Oliver being chased by dozens of students), we attempted to watch the debate from the new campus restaurant so that we could get some drinks while watching it. A fine idea, but there was no TV in the restaurant (probably a good idea for a nice restaurant) and the Archpundit’s laptop didn’t have a strong enough wireless connection to deliver reliable video, so we ended up standing in a packed student cafe watching it on one of the many live feeds around campus.

The restaurant foray wasn’t a total loss. The door opened from the restaurant to the patio we were sitting on, and sitting at the head of the table directly in our view, almost like a Mafia don, was Chris Matthews.

Anyway, some quick impressions. I think McCain probably bussed in a lot of people, because in the battle of the sign holders around the MSNBC stage, Team McCain’s people looked older and out of place with the normal Wash U crowd. After the debate, none of those people were back at the MSNBC stage. We did see Steve Schmidt angrily storming away from the stage after taping an appearance. Don’t know if it was in response to what he had been asked or something unrelated.

Also, this was my first time in a long while watching the debate in a public venue in a long while. And I have to say, Biden was the only candidate who elicited any cheers, or any vocalized response, other than a few chuckles at some of Palin’s dunderheaded answers. And if you think that’s just because Wash U is just some liberal elite school, it also has a well-organized College Republican chapter and is the recipient of major conservative donors like John Olin. One of the major Swift Boat donors has a building named for him on campus. And the campus held a cookie sale in 2004 as a proxy vote for the election. It was hotly contested, and Bush ended up besting Kerry by a similar margin as the real election.

As for the debate itself, I don’t think my opinion is controversial. Biden did relatively well, Palin beat her abysmal expectations, and not many votes probably changed as a result.