Well, to me it became obvious that the McCain camp decided to go with the strategy employed by Cheney when he debated Edwards. McCain was to treat Obama as the "eager school boy" and be dismissive of him. Hence the multiple times McCain said Obama did not "understand" certain issues. That was the McCain "hook" dangled out there for Joe and Martha Mainstreet to nibble on. If they did not "understand" the issues being discussed and it was over their head, they did understand that McCain kept hammering that Obama just does not get it. I'm not sure about the reason McCain did not look at Obama and would not address him. I think it may have been part of the strategy and a visual reinforcement of the verbal dismissals. I agree it could just be a McCain character flaw as he does appear awkward and hostile in a debate setting. He does remind me of Nixon in his uncomfortable manner in front of the cameras.

One thing I heard on CNN last night leading up to the debate was that McCain genuinely dislikes Obama. This surprised me and I really don't know if the person who said it was blowing smoke. I think it was Gloria Borger. I had never heard that before although I had heard that McCain does not hide the fact he does not like certain people very well. I have heard several times that McCain thinks Mitt Romney is an "asshole" and I do know McCain is well known for his colorful language when describing enemies. Another thing that sort of reminds me of Nixon.

I ended up being surprised by people showing up at my house and insisting we go out to dinner and then all watch the debate together back at my place. The overall consensus when it was over was we all felt Obama had won (even the life long Republican that watched it with me) but that if you took into consideration how it "played" nationwide you'd have to call it a draw. We agreed there was a slow start to the proceeding with neither candidate wanting to commit to the bail out plan during this debate as the matter is still hotly contested. I and everybody else felt this was understandable. McCain reverting to direct quotes from his stump speech we all found annoying but predictable. McCain was not going to add substance to the debate and I'd be surprised if anybody thought he would. He wanted to highlight his many more years of experience...period. To me it was plain that Obama defended his positions and stood up to this well (other than the overreach on the Kissinger thing) but yeah, you gotta question what Joe and Martha Mainstreet heard and took from that.

In the end we all agreed neither candidate did enough to sway voters to their side and while it "felt like" an Obama win it was probably a draw. Yes, McCain lied and he dodged and did not answer, and just said the things he wanted to say as politicians are trained to do when they are faced with something they either don't want to or can't answer...but he remained consistent and dismissive while doing it giving him an air of confidence that some viewers probably liked. I do think a lot of people probably had no idea what was going on during the debate and what they were talking about and many of these people will turn on a tv or talk radio and listen to pundits tell them what they should think.

Cass, did you read that front page story form the NY Times that described Paulson down on his knees begging Pelosi not to blow up the deal? Crazy stuff! SNL should do a skit on that!