TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

Is this how you feel the night before a big speech or presentation? If so, then world renowned speaking Expert and author TJ Walker can help you. Go to tjwalker.com and sign up for your free speech training course coming in 2009. The new book TJ Walker's Secret to Foolproof Presentations. I'm Mike Baco for the Speaking Channel and we are in our Times Square studios with speaking exper for TJ Walker. TJ the debate is over. What are your initial impressions?

Well, they both actually performed quite well. If I had to give it on points, I'd give a slight advantage to Biden. I'd say it was a B plus performance versus an A minus performance. But they both accomplished a number of things here. Biden wanted to get through a debate without having any major gaps. I think he did that, although he may have messed up a number here or there. Nothing, nothing major. Palin accomplished her big goal, which is can she get through a whole debate without being fodder for another Saturday night? Now expectations were extremely low for her after the last week of interviews where she basically made a fool out of herself with Katie Couric interviews and other interviews and she really sounded quite convincing, authoritative. She was fluent on foreign policy. She mentioned foreign leaders names. Frankly, if you compare her performance to how George Bush speaks after being in office for nearly eight years, she came across more articulate, more authoritative. Now where I take her down on points is she was too quick to come Back to John McCain is a maverick. A maverick, A maverick. She occasionally didn't answer questions quite as directly as Biden, but overall a very solid performance.

So this past week was a tough one for Governor Palin. She had been lampooned on Saturday Night Live. She did not have a good performance. With Katie Pert, how do you think she performed?

Well, she did have some nice retorts. She said it was a lame joke when she said she didn't know what the vice president does. And I think she came across as convincing. Now that may have been a joke to manufactured to deflect criticism for her, but overall I think she came across as likable, charming, nice, friendly and the people who said, wow, there's no way she's even a tiny bit credible for the office. I think they had to scratch their head and think maybe we give her another chance. That doesn't mean she bested Biden tonight. I think he was more forceful in defending his primary candidate, Obama. He was much more forceful in attacking McCain, attacking McCain on the war, attacking McCain on his economic policies. Here's where Biden was weak, however. He was too complicated in his defense on taxes. You know, anytime you start saying, well, no, I'm against taxes, they're against taxes, but I'm less against them. It was too complicated a defense. Too often he was into the minutiae of legislation and he was saying what he isn't. In politics, it's never a good idea to say what you aren't. Just like Richard Nixon shouldn't have said, I'm not a crook. Biden should not have spent time saying, well, I'm not a tax ranger. He was too complex in his arguments. However, in the second half of the debate, he really redeemed himself. He was very forceful, powerful, and in that final moment, near the end of the whole debate, he choked with emotion, saying, essentially, just because I'm a man doesn't mean I don't know how it feels to deal with family problems. My own wife died, my child. He talked in a very compelling human way. Quite got from Sarah Palin, but she certainly didn't seem robotic. She certainly didn't seem stiff. She didn't have this look like what's that on my talking points? What's that on my script? She came across overall compelling. So again, this was not a debate that's going to fundamentally change the campaign. The people who love Biden or love Palin are not going to change their minds. It's not going to change the debate. And for Palin, it gets her back in. It diffuses this whole push of some to get her taken him off the ticket.

So the debate is over. Who came out the best?

Well, they each win in certain categories. Overall, I say Biden wins on points. That's why I give him an A minus versus A Palin's B. But she won a lot tonight, too. She now is back in the game on the national stage. She's no longer a laughingstock.

Is this how you feel the night before a big speech or presentation? If so, then world renowned speaking Experts and author TJ Walker can help you. Go to tjwalker.com and sign up for your free speech training course coming in 2009. The new book TJ Walker's Secret to Foolproof Presentations.