Full confession here: I expected last night to be the death knell for Sarah Palin.

Based on the way struggled in her limited media appearances and the way she has been shielded by the McCain camp, I was expecting the worst for the Alaska governor.

I had images of Upper Darby’s own Tina Fey and her devastating ‘Saturday Night Live’ parody of Palin dancing in my head.

Didn’t happen.

Sarah Palin strode out onto that stage last night, stared straight into the camera, and held her own in the first – and only – vice presidential debate.

I would mark the debate as a draw.

In doing so, I think it almost has to be beneficial for Republicans and the McCain/Palin ticket. In case you haven’t noticed, they haven’t exactly been having a banner week.

It started last week with McCain suspending his campaign and announcing he was going back to Washington to work on the economic bailout plan. He also called for postponing last Friday night’s debate.

But once he got to Washington, most seemed to think he didn’t help things and might just have made things worse. He got hammered for days.

The latest polls out this week show Barack Obama widening his lead, especially in several swing states such as Ohio, Florida and, yes, Pennsylvania. A Quinnipiac poll actually had Obama opening up a double-digit lead here.

Then all eyes shifted to St. Louis and last night’s vice presidential debate. Most were expecting the “wince factor” to be in play, to see a continuation of Palin struggling to give cogent answers to questions, to show that she has sufficient command of the issues and policies to be the second half of a presidential ticket.

She didn’t deliver any knockout blows, but more importantly was that she isn’t picking herself up off the canvas this morning. You could call it a draw. Which I think most Republicans would take in a second if you offered it to them earlier in the week.

Palin looked much more at ease and in command, even if she did have a tendency to stick to her talking points, regardless of the question. But that’s the nature of debating, framing the argument in a way that best suits you.

And she might have gotten off the two best lines of the night. Palin called the Obama policy on Iraq “waving the white flag of surrender.” The other one might not have pleased Republicans quite as much, when she spoke of the “many blunders” in foreign policy by the Bush Administration.

After the debate, the spinners were doing their thing. One instant survey done by CBS of uncommitted voters shows 46 percent saying Biden got the better of the debate, to just 21 for Palin.

I’m not buying those numbers.

There were no knockouts in this affair, which in itself is a win for Palin. I still have my concerns about her experience and her abilities to step into the role of president if the need should occur.

But it was a very long, lousy week for the McCain team. A bad night from Palin could have been the coup de grace. Instead she held her own against the formidable Biden. It might have been just what McCain needed.

Eat your heart out, Tiny Fey.