The Debate

I thought the format of the debate was great -- these guys want to mix it up and the format gave them that chance. I also thought Bob Schieffer did a much better job moderating than did the moderators in the first three debates. He, for the most part, asked great questions, and the topics were well-structured in that they blended in such a way that would oftentimes allow the discussion from the previous question to continue into the next question.

The best line of the night was McCain's "I'm not President Bush -- if you wanted to run against him, you should have ran in 2004." Obama had a good reply, but McCain needed to make that statement and I think he pulled it off pretty well.

But I thought that McCain sucked for much of the rest of the debate. He had some good answers on education and maybe one or two other topics, but his demeanor was pretty appalling. He did the "Al Gore Sigh" several times, he had this weird look on his face for much of the debate, and he even interrupted Obama's answers a couple of times. Not good.

Obama did his usual steady job. In fact, I think he was sharper than he was in the second debate with his answers. McCain, on the trade question, told Obama that maybe he should learn more about Columbia by going down there. Obama responded by demonstrating that he obviously is very knowledgeable on that issue. McCain tried that tactic in the first debate ("What Senator Obama doesn't understand . . .") and it failed, just like it failed this time. Obama also did a good job responding to the Bill Ayers issue, and was very wise to not go after Palin.

The "Joe the Plumber" gimmick was OK; but Obama spoke right to this Joe character in one of his answers, and I thought that was a very effective way to deal with McCain' gimmick.

Right now, the pundits are all saying that Obama "played it safe" and wasn't on his game, but I thought he did a great job. He went after McCain on the issues when the situation called for it, and defended himself well against McCain's attacks. And once again, he looked and sounded calm and presidential.

McCain, on the other hand, acted like he was on uppers for much of the time, especially when he went on the attack, and he spoke in a weird way. But on some answers, he was very good with his delivery and sounded calm. He seemed like two different people.

With regard to the abortion question, the pundits are also commenting on how McCain mocked women whose health might be threatened late in the pregnancy. I don't know how much trouble he'll get in for that, but I'm sure his base loved it.