However you may have scored the vice-presidential debate, it did not do much to change the public perception of Sarah Palin when it comes to her favorability ratings or whether she is seen as qualified to serve as President, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted Oct. 3-5.

Palin's favorable to unfavorable ratio after the debate was 55 percent to 40 percent, compared to 51 percent to 42 percent before the debate. Joseph Biden got a bigger bump, with his pre and post-debate favorability rating going from 54 percent to 63 percent.

Fifty- percent of voters said Palin was not qualified to serve as president, compared to 51 percent pre-debate. Biden was viewed as qualified to serve by 77 percent, a gain of 8 points.

The three words most used by voters to describe Biden were knowledgeable (53 percent), experienced (32 percent) and competent (23 percent), while the words most used for Palin were confident (15 percent), honest (15 percent) with good percent).and inexperienced tied at 14 percent.

Both candidates got high marks for their performances. Sixty-five percent of voters rated Palin excellent or good, and 81 percent said that of Biden.

Fifty percent of Americans have a favorable view of Sarah Palin with 37 percent regarding her unfavorably, but perceptions of her split sharply along partisan lines, according to an ABC News poll conducted Sept. 4. The margin of error is 4.5 percent. Republicans look positively on Palin by an 85 percent to 7 percent margin compared to Democrats who regard her unfavorably by 63 percent to 24 percent. Independents see her favorably by 53 percent to 34 percent.

For comparison, Joseph Biden's favorable to unfavorable ratio is 54 percent to 30 percent with Democrats holding that view 77 percent to 9 percent, independents seeing him favorably by 52 percent to 31 percent and Republicans seeing him unfavorably by 60 percent to 27 percent. But Americans say by 50 percent to 42 percent that she does not have the right experience to be President while 66 percent say Biden does.

However, the majority of Americans say the selection of the vice presidential candidates will make no difference to their votes.

A SurveyUSA poll of voters in the New York City area says New Yorkers consider Sarah Palin a liability rather than an asset to John McCain by a 42 percent to 35 percent margin with 22 percent expressing no opinion. They also say by a 46 percent to 36 percent margin with 17 percent unsure that the choice reflected badly on McCain. Seventy-one percent said the pregnancy of Palin's daughter Bristol should remain a private matter. As far as news coverage of Palin, 31 percent said there had been too much, 27 percent said too little, and 35 percent said it had been just about right.

For comparison, 49 percent said Joe Biden was an asset to Barack Obama compared to 19 percent who called him a liability and 32 percent who said they didn't know enough to judge. Fifty-three percent said the selection reflected well on Obama against 20 percent who said it reflected poorly on him.