Good morning, D.C. So, who won last night’s hotly anticipated VP debate (can you remember the last time we had a hotly anticipated VP debate)? The general consensus seems to be that neither candidate had a major gaffe, and that the most likely result is that this debate didn’t change the presidential race one way or another. Slate’s John Dickerson writes that Palin managed to stop the bleeding for McCain. Jon Cohen at the Washington Post’s The Trail blog says that both Palin and Biden scored points by beating low expectations, and that moderator Gwen Ifill also won the evening by coming across as extremely fair despite having spent the last two days being accused of a pro-Obama bias. And the Politico’s John Harris and Mike Allen argue that Palin may have managed not to fall on her face, but since her job on the GOP ticket was actually supposed to be to put McCain over the top, she pretty much failed in every way. Of course, we all know who the clear losers were last night: those of us whose VP Debate Bingo cards and pre-planned drinking games relied on a majorly embarrassing moment for us to achieve an adequate buzz.

Fenty Proposes His Budget Cuts: Since the news came down that lower than expected tax revenue has left the District $131 million in the hole, we’ve been waiting to see how Mayor Fenty would deal with the first time he’s ever had to make serious budget cuts. The Post has the scoop on what the mayor is going to bring before the D.C. Council on Monday. As was expected, a big part of Fenty’s strategy is to eliminate 400 more vacant city positions, saving $31 million. Additionally, he’ll also propose saving $10 million by delaying a planned investment in retirement benefits for city employees, and $35 million by performing a little bank account shuffle and grabbing accrued revenue from city agencies like the DCRA. The mayor has also attached his controversial D.C. Lottery contract to this budget.

Big Drug Raid Nets 22 Arrests: D.C. police arrested 22 people last night during a large-scale raid in and around the Clay Terrace housing complex in Northeast. The Post writes that Clay Terrace “was home to a notorious and violent PCP market.” And in a funny twist, it appears as though the MPD’s Major Case Investigative Unit found some of the suspects through their linked MySpace pages. Sounds like something you’d see on Law & Order, doesn’t it?

Briefly Noted: Metro operator’s Redskins celebration causes complaints … Case worker visited freezer bodies suspect in January … Man who raped, killed elderly neighbor to be sentenced.

This Day in DCist: In 2007, we reported that Ian MacKaye was still alive, and in 2006, we said goodbye to Martha the eagle.

Photo by ericschoon