It seems like she was coached or given answers to the questions before. I know people change overtime and they become more experienced but she didn't seem the same as she was in those interviews.

I think you will find that it is standard practice to give all the candidates the questions beforehand so as they have time to prepare their responses.

In a way I find this to be not so good, as it does not show how fast each candidate can think on their feet. It shows no indication of how that person would really react in a crisis when they are forced to think and act immediately.

I believe they are given general guidelines as to the subjects covered, eg, "economy" or "Foreign policy", but not the specific questions.

Having said that, it's not that hard to believe that she was forced to memorize responses to questions that were likely to come up. A good way to check this would be to compare the actual question to how closely her response answers that.

(I haven't seen the debate yet)

I believe Inannamute is correct. They practice with many similar questions and have certain points they want to make on certain subjects, but they don't know what questions might come up.

This was clear with the "Achilles heel" question. Ifill asked what Palin's Achilles heel really was:

IFILL:The conventional wisdom, Gov. Palin with you, is that your Achilles heel is that you lack experience. ... What is it really for you, Gov. Palin? ...

But Palin heard "you lack experience" and immediately went to the answer to the "you lack experience" question that she had been prepared for...

PALIN: My experience as an executive will be put to good use as a mayor and business owner and oil and gas regulator and then as governor of a huge state, a huge energy producing state that is accounting for much progress towards getting our nation energy independence and that's extremely important...

She didn't say what her weak spot was. I don't think she heard the real question as she was setting up her canned answer to the you lack experience question.

Palin actually answered about half the questions, if that. I mean, she spoke after Gwen asked the questions, but her answers were many times only slightly related by a word or idea, if at all.

She also said:

And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear...

...which I think was her excuse for not answering the questions put to her. Whoever prepared her did a fantastic job. Because as we've seen in her interviews, if she's pressed on details or follow up, she falls flat on her face.

I don't think she got the questions ahead of time. She couldn't answer any of them. She repeated canned talking points. She was so excited about her talking points but they were talking points non the less.