This morning I’m a little disappointed. Last night’s vice president debate was supposed to be filled with kooky moments. Like Joe Biden having a meal of shoe leather or Sarah Palin confusing the leaders of China and Iran (I do that all the time). However, both candidates can return to their camps proud.

Biden kept his answers short (for him that is) didn’t say or do anything sexist, and the moment he choked up about his kids was priceless. Palin showed why McCain picked her. She was bright, attacked with a smile, and even had some fun (didn’t she wink at the audience?).

The morning after, I’m not as joyous about Biden’s comment on same-sex couples. Hey I’m a cranky queen. Don’t get me wrong. I still think it proves a  significant political paradigm shift, but like we all know: proof comes with actions and deeds.

But the idea of a shifting landscape remains. Heck even Palin’s response to the same-sex relationship question is much more than any Republican has said in the past. Here is Palin, a darling of the base (a darling of the base), saying this:

“No one would ever propose, not in a McCain-Palin administration, to do anything to prohibit, say, visitations in a hospital or contracts being signed.”

Sure we can parse that and even find it silly, but remember: it is light years ahead of four years ago when a certain candidate for the GOP was trying to sell same-sex relationships down the river. That is worth remembering.

Biden needs to stop smiling. Sort of creppy.

Well it’s finally here. Candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin meet in St. Louis tonight for the first, and only, vice president debate for this election season. Both candidates are immersed in pre-debate buzz. Biden needs to keep his foot out of his mouth and not come off as if he is talking down to Palin (no sexism charges).

For the Republican nominee, she has to shake the impression that has been evolving since her interview with CBS’s Katie Couric. What impression you ask? That Palin is completely unprepared to assume the reins of power.

Ahhh, but that’s not all. Even tonight’s moderator will be under a harsh spotlight. Some Republicans are arguing PBS’s Gwen Ifill is in the tank for Biden’s running mate, Barack Obama, because of her upcoming book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Jennifer and I will be here live-blogging. Drop by. Make comments. Enjoy the show.

Obama announced the pick on his Web site with a photo of the two men and an appeal for donations. A text message went out shortly afterward that said, “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee.”

Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.

Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.

In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses.

Obama’s campaign arranged a debut for the newly minted ticket on Saturday outside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.

Obama’s decision leaked to the media several hours before his aides planned to send a text message announcing the running mate, negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know who Obama had chosen. The campaign scrambled to send the text message after the leak, sending phones buzzing at the inconvenient time of just after 3 a.m. on the East coast.

Hundreds of miles to the west, carpenters, electricians, sound stage gurus and others transformed the Pepsi Center in Denver into a made-for-television convention venue.

Tucked away in one corner were thousands of lightweight rolled cardboard tubes, ready-made handles for signs bearing the names of the Democratic ticket – once the identity of Obama’s running mate was known.

While Obama decided against adding Clinton to his ticket, he has gone to great lengths to gain the confidence of her primary voters, agreeing to allow her name to be placed in nomination at the convention and permitting a roll call vote that threatens to expose lingering divisions within the party.

Biden slowly emerged as Obama’s choice across a long day and night of political suspense as other contenders gradually fell away.

First Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine let it be known that he had been ruled out. Then came word that Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana had also been passed over.

Several aides to Clinton said the Obama campaign had never requested financial or other records from her.

Other finalists in the veep sweepstakes were Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Texas Rep. Chet Edwards.

Among those on the short list, Biden brought the most experience in defense or foreign policy – areas in which Obama fares relatively poorly in the polls compared with Republican Sen. John McCain.

While the war in Iraq has been supplanted as the campaign’s top issues by the economy in recent months, the recent Russian invasion of Georgia has returned foreign policy to the forefront.

In addition to foreign policy experience, Biden, a native of Scranton, Pa., has working-class roots that could benefit Obama, who lost the blue-collar vote to Clinton during their competition for the presidential nomination.

Biden was elected to the Senate at the age of 29 in 1972, but personal tragedy struck before he could take office. His wife and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed when a tractor-trailer broad-sided her station wagon.

Biden took his oath of office for his first term at the hospital bedside of one of his sons.

On Friday, he spent the day at his home in Delaware with friends and family. The normally loquacious lawmaker maintained a low profile as associates said they believed – but did not know – he would be tapped. They added they had been asked to stand by in case their help was needed.

No sooner had word spread of his selection than McCain’s campaign unleashed its first attack. Spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement that Biden had “denounced Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing – that Barack Obama is not ready to be president.”

As evidence, Republicans cited an ABC interview from August 2007, in which Biden said he would stand by an earlier statement that Obama was not ready to serve as president.

Biden is seeking a new Senate term in the fall. there was no immediate word whether he intended to change plans as he reaches for national office.

Michael Silberman, a partner at online communications firm EchoDitto, said the campaign gambled when they made such a high-stakes promise and find themselves in a precarious situation where they could risk a great deal of trust with supporters.

“For Obama supporters, this is like finding out from your neighbor instead of your sister that she’s engaged – not how you want or expect the news to be delivered,” Silberman said.

Biden dropped out of the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination after a poor finish in the Iowa caucuses, but not before he talked dismissively of joining someone else’s ticket.

“I am not running for vice president,” he said in a Fox interview. “I would not accept it if anyone offered it to me. The fact of the matter is I’d rather stay as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee than be vice president.”

He had stumbled on his first day in the race, apologizing for having described Obama as “clean.” Months later, Obama spoke up on Biden’s defense, praising him during a campaign debate for having worked for racial equality.

It was Biden’s second try for the White House. The first ended badly in 1988 when he was caught lifting lines from a speech by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

In the decades since, he become a power in the Senate, presiding over confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominees as well as convening hearings to criticize President Bush’s handling of the Iraq War.

Biden voted to authorize the war, but long ago became one of the Senate’s surest critics of the conflict. Ironically, perhaps, his son, Beau, attorney general of Delaware, is due to spend a tour of duty in Iraq beginning this fall with his National Guard unit.

Obama worked to keep his choice secret, although he addressed the issue broadly during the day in an interview.

“Obviously, the most important question is: Is this person ready to be president?” Obama told “The Early Show” on CBS. Second, he said, was: “Can this person help me govern? Are they going to be an effective partner in creating the kind of economic opportunity here at home and guiding us through some dangerous waters internationally?”

And, he added: “I want somebody who is going to be able to challenge my thinking and not simply be a yes person when it comes to policymaking.

A senior Obama adviser told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday that the Illinois senator and his choice for vice president will appear in Springfield, Ill., at the former state Capitol where Abraham Lincoln once served.

The last time Obama appeared there he announced he was running for president.

Obama strategist Anita Dunn sidestepped the question of whether the event would be Obama’s first appearance with his vice presidential pick, but suggested the two wouldn’t necessarily be related. The campaign’s announcement Tuesday said only that Obama would begin the trip to his party’s national convention at Saturday’s event. The Democratic convention begins Monday in Denver.

“We could pick up the VP. any time,” Dunn said.

The campaign has said it will announce the choice via cell phone text message to supporters.

The list of possibilities, meanwhile, is believed to be down to Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who planned to campaign in his home state Thursday with Obama.

At a town-hall meeting Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C., Obama repeatedly said “he” when discussing the qualities he sought in a potential running mate, even as campaign officials cautioned reporters not to read too much into his choice of pronouns.

“Let me tell you first what I won’t do: I won’t hand over my energy policy to my vice president and not know necessarily what he’s doing,” Obama told the audience. “My vice president … will be a member of the executive branch. He won’t be one of these fourth branches of government where he thinks he’s above the law,” he said, an apparent reference to Vice President Dick Cheney’s handling of the office.

Those thought to be on Obama’s short list stayed mum.

Biden coyly told reporters staking out his Delaware home, “I’m not the guy.” Sebelius, in an interview with the AP before stumping for Obama in Michigan, professed no inside knowledge of when word would come.

“A week from tomorrow we will all know,” she said, referring to the running-mate acceptance speech set for next Wednesday at the convention.

Only Obama, his wife, Michelle, a handful of his most senior advisers and his two-member search committee know for certain who has made the cut.

The running mate decision also looms large for McCain, too.

In hopes of grabbing the post-convention spotlight from Obama, McCain is considering announcing his choice in the few days between the end of the Democratic convention in Denver and the start of the Republican gathering in St. Paul, Minn.

McCain’s top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Other possible choices are former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential pick in 2000 who now is an independent.

Underscoring how seriously McCain may be considering Ridge or Lieberman, Republican officials say top McCain advisers have been reaching out to big donors and high-profile delegates in key states to gauge the impact of putting an abortion-rights supporter on the GOP ticket.

But conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh warned that the GOP base “will totally turn on McCain” if he picks an abortion-rights running mate and predicted such a move “will ensure his defeat.”

Speculation swirled Tuesday that McCain might name his vice presidential partner within the next few days – right in the middle of Barack Obama’s overseas tour.

McCain aides were not helping tamp down the speculation with their comments, often made late in the afternoon, of “no announcement today.”

But what about tomorrow? Or where? On Tuesday, McCain campaigned in New Hampshire, not all that far from a lakeside summer home of vanquished GOP rival Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. Romney was nowhere to be seen. Well, it wasn’t really that close to his lakeside home.

One member of the audience told McCain he seemed like a very “forgiving” man. “Have you forgiven Mitt Romney?” he asked the senator.

Amid laughter, McCain said, “Mitt has been of tremendous help to my campaign. … He does a better job for me than he did for himself.”

Later, when reporters asked if this was a good week to announce his own running mate with Obama overseas, McCain chuckled and said, “We have the same answer we always have. … We’ll let you know when we have an announcement.”

Last Sunday, McCain was in the Bronx at a Yankees game with another former rival, one-time New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “You hear all kinds of stuff,” Giuliani later said, “but I’m not thinking about anything but helping to get him elected.”

The campaign is also not very open about where McCain is going next, keeping scheduling matters close to the vest. And that adds to the frenzy.

All questions about the process of selecting a running mate are quickly shot down.

“It’s the one subject we’ve been forbidden to talk about,” said senior adviser Mark Salter. He promised to come to the press area of McCain’s plane, “but I won’t tell you anything.” That is, unless it’s “what’s wrong with Barack Obama’s judgment,” Salter joked. Actually, he wasn’t joking.

When reporters caught a glimpse of McCain and rushed forward on the plane, he grinned and waved them away. “What do you want, you little jerks?” he asked.

There are a lot of potential running mates that McCain could visit as he jets around the country – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist or Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, for instance, three governors mentioned frequently as possible running mates. McCain ends up in New Orleans on Wednesday evening.

McCain returned to New Hampshire, a state where he his fared well in two presidential primaries (2000 and 2008). Obama and McCain are neck-and-neck in this swing state, and only half of likely voters said they have definitely decided on their choice for president.

A University of New Hampshire poll showed Obama with 46 percent and McCain with 43 percent, a statistical tie given the poll’s margin of error of 3 percentage points. “This will be one of those states who decides who the next president of the United States will be,” McCain said.

Even former President George H.W. Bush was asked by reporters for his views on McCain’s vice presidential search when the Arizona senator visited the elder Bush at his family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush said he wasn’t in the politics business any more.

But what about Romney, once governor of neighboring Massachusetts? Bush didn’t jump to the bait. But what do you think of him as a person? “I like him,” said the former president.

And that was it.

McCain on Tuesday participated in a town-hall meeting in a theater and “opera house” this central New Hampshire village. Half a world away, reporters were trailing Obama as he visited Jordan in route to Israel.

McCain has told reporters he doesn’t care if Obama’s trip was stealing attention and thinks it “doesn’t in the slightest” undercut his own message. But on Tuesday the campaign released two videos set to love songs and encouraged viewers to choose which one best conveyed this message: “The media is in love with Barack.”

Meanwhile, McCain told his audience, “I know you know there’s been a lot of back and forth” on the issue of Iraq. He said when he was campaigning in New Hampshire a year ago, “when everybody declared my candidacy dead … I said we’ve go to do the ’surge’ … and we will win the war in Iraq. And we are winning that war.”

“If he had his way, we would have been out last March,” McCain said. “We would have never succeeded and we would have had defeat. … He was wrong then, he is wrong now.”

McCain renewed a proposal to have town-hall meetings with Obama in the coming days, a suggestion that has so far been turned down by Obama’s team.