ST. LOUIS (AP) - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah
Palin accused Barack Obama of voting against funding for U.S.
troops in combat Thursday night in her much-anticipated debate with
Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, whom she chastised for defending
the move, "especially with your son in the National Guard" and
headed for Iraq.

"John McCain voted against funding for the troops," as well,
Biden countered, adding that the Republican presidential candidate
had been "dead wrong on the fundamental issues relating to the
conduct of the war."

Biden did not immediately reply to Palin's mention of his son,
Beau, the Delaware attorney general, who is scheduled to fly to
Iraq with his National Guard soon.

Palin has a young son who is in Iraq with the Alaska National
Guard, although she did not refer to it.

The exchange over Iraq was easily the most personal, and among
the most pointed, as the two running mates debated across 90
minutes on a stage at Washington University.

They also clashed over energy, the economy, global warming and
more in their only debate, with little more than one month
remaining in the campaign and McCain struggling to regain his
footing.

Republican officials disclosed earlier in the day that he was
conceding the battleground state of Michigan to Obama. The state
voted Democratic four years ago, but McCain had spent millions
trying to place it in his column.

Biden was scathing in his criticism of McCain's position on the
Iraq war, calling him the "odd man out" for his refusal to accept
a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

But Palin countered that a timetable was tantamount to "a white
flag of surrender in Iraq," and at a moment when victory was
"within sight."

She also said Biden had once supported McCain's view of the war,
and noted that he had once said of Obama that he wasn't ready to be
commander in chief ... "and I know again that you opposed the move
that he made to try to cut off funding for the troops and I respect
you for that."

"I don't know how you can defend that position now but - I know
that you know, especially with your son in the National Guard."

As for Obama, she said, "Another story there. Anyone I think
who can cut off funding for the troops after promising not to -
that's another story."

Biden's reply was in clipped tones. "John McCain voted to cut
off funding for the troops. Let me say that again. John McCain
voted against an amendment containing $1 billion, 600 million
dollars" for protective equipment that is "protecting the
governor's son and, pray God, my son and a lot of other sons and
daughters. He voted against it."

Palin, who has been governor of her state less than two years,
was under intense pressure to demonstrate a strong grasp of the
issues as she stepped onto the stage. Polls show the public has
become increasingly skeptical of her readiness for high public
office.

As is her custom on the campaign, she spoke in familiar terms,
saying "betcha" rather than "bet you" and "gonna" rather than
"going to."

She also spoke to the home folks. "Here's a shout-out" to
third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School in Alaska. She said
they would all receive extra credit for watching the debate.

"Can I call you Joe?" she asked Biden as they shook hands
before taking their places behind identical lecterns.

He readily agreed she could - and she used it to effect more
than an hour later. "Say it ain't so, Joe," she said as she
smilingly criticized him at one point for focusing his comments on
the Bush administration rather than the future.

She made only one obvious stumble, when she twice referred to
the top U.S. general in Afghanistan as "Gen. McClellan." In fact,
his name is David McKiernan.

Biden's burden was not nearly as fundamental. Although he has
long had a reputation for long-windedness, he is a veteran of more
than 35 years in the Senate, with a strong knowledge of foreign
policy as well as domestic issues.

For much of the evening, the debate unfolded in traditional vice
presidential fashion - the running mates praising their own
presidential candidate and denigrating the other.

Palin said Obama had voted to raise taxes 94 times - an
allegation that Biden disputed and then countered. By the same
reckoning, he said, McCain voted "477 times to raise taxes."

They clashed over energy policy, as well, when Palin said
Obama's vote for a Bush administration-backed bill granted breaks
to the oil industry. By contrast, she said that as governor, she
had stood up to the same industry, and noted that McCain had voted
against the bill Obama supported.

Biden said that in the past decade, McCain had voted "20 times
against funding alternative energy sources and thinks, I guess, the
only answer is drill, drill, drill."

"The chant is, `drill, baby drill," Palin countered quickly,
unwilling to yield to Biden on that issue - or any other.

On the environment, Palin declined to attribute the cause of
climate change to man-made activities alone. "There is something
to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical
temperature changes on our planet," she said, adding that she
didn't want to argue about the causes.

Biden said the cause was clearly man-made, and added, "If you
don't understand what the cause is, it's virtually impossible to
come up with a solution."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Facts went adrift on taxes, deregulation and more Thursday when Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden clashed in the vice presidential debate.
Some examples:

PALIN: Said of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama:
"94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax
reduction."

THE FACTS: The dubious count includes repetitive votes as well
as votes to cut taxes for the middle class while raising them on
the rich. An analysis by factcheck.org found that 23 of the votes
were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all,
seven were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for
many, 11 would have increased taxes on only those making more than
$1 million a year.
---
BIDEN: Complained about "economic policies of the last eight
years" that led to "excessive deregulation."

THE FACTS: Biden voted for 1999 deregulation that liberal groups
are blaming for part of the financial crisis today. The law allowed
Wall Street investment banks to create the kind of mortgage-related
securities at the core of the problem now. The law was widely
backed by Republicans as well as by Democratic President Clinton,
who argues it has stopped the crisis today from being worse.
---

PALIN: "Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed
so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures. He
sounded that warning bell."

THE FACTS: Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska led an effort
in 2005 to tighten regulation on the mortgage underwriters - McCain
joined as a co-sponsor a year later. The legislation was never
taken up by the full Senate, then under Republican control.
---

BIDEN: Warned that Republican presidential candidate John
McCain's $5,000 tax credit to help families buy health coverage
"will go straight to the insurance company."

THE FACTS: Of course it would, because it's meant to pay for
insurance. That's like saying money for a car loan will go straight
to the car dealer.
---

PALIN: Claimed she has taken on the oil industry as Alaska
governor.

THE FACTS: Palin pushed to impose a windfall profits tax on oil
companies and distributed the proceeds to the state's citizens to
offset rising energy costs. However, she has also sided with the
industry on a number of issues. She sued the Interior Department
over its designation of polar bears as an endangered species. That
puts her on the same side as the American Petroleum Institute, the
oil industry's chief trade association. She also supports the
industry's desire to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -
a position at odds with McCain.
---

BIDEN: Said McCain supports tax breaks for oil companies, and
"wants to give them another $4 billion tax cut."

THE FACTS: Biden is repeating a favorite saw of the Obama
campaign, and it's misleading. McCain supports a cut in income
taxes for all corporations, and doesn't single out any one industry
for that benefit.
---

PALIN: Said the United States has reduced its troop level in
Iraq to a number below where it was when the troop increase began
in early 2007.

THE FACTS: Not correct. The Pentagon says there are currently
152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 17,000 more than there were
before the 2007 military buildup began.
---

BIDEN: "As a matter of fact, John recently wrote an article in
a major magazine saying that he wants to do for the health care
industry - deregulate it and let the free market move - like he did
for the banking industry."

THE FACTS: Biden and Obama have been perpetuating this
distortion of what McCain wrote in an article for the American
Academy of Actuaries. McCain, laying out his health plan, only
referred to deregulation when saying people should be allowed to
buy health insurance across state lines. In that context, he wrote:
"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous
nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in
banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less
burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
---

PALIN: Said Alaska is "building a nearly $40 billion natural
gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive
infrastructure project ever to flow those sources of energy into
hungry markets."

THE FACTS: Not quite. Construction is at least six years away.
So far the state has only awarded a license to Trans Canada Corp.,
that comes with $500 million in seed money in exchange for
commitments toward a lengthy and costly process to getting a
federal certificate. At an August news conference after the state
Legislature approved the license, Palin said, "It's not a done
deal."
---

PALIN: "Barack Obama even supported increasing taxes as late as
last year for those families making only $42,000 a year."

BIDEN: "The charge is absolutely not true. Barack Obama did not
vote to raise taxes. The vote she's referring to, John McCain voted
the exact same way."

THE FACTS: The vote was on a nonbinding budget resolution that
assumed that President Bush's tax cuts would expire, as scheduled,
in 2011. If that actually happened, it could mean higher taxes for
people making as little as about $42,000. But Obama is proposing
tax increases only on the wealthy, and would cut taxes for most
others. In the March 14 budget resolution supported by Obama and
Biden, McCain actually did not vote.
---
Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Steve Quinn, Jim Kuhnhenn and
Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)