I am sitting at my desk, a cool red-number from Ikea that is shaped like a peanut, which must mean that I am studying, but I am going to take a brief sojourn away from Thomas Mann and Robert Frost (maybe a little more Heidegger later for desert) and throw out some observations about the debate last night.
- Did anyone notice that John McCain was incapable of looking at Barack Obama when he was speaking about him? It was obvious in the first minutes of the debate that the moderator was interested in the two addressing each other personally, and Obama took to this like a fish to water, but McCain would not make eye-contact. I found this, if nothing else, really strange. I realize that he is not nervous - he has been doing it too long - but he certainly appeared uncomfortable, whereas Obama seemed right at home.
- Funny line of the night (it even made Obama audibly giggle): "Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record in the Senate....it's hard to reach across the aisle when you're that far to the Left." Very clever.
- A quick question of protocol: Is it okay to refer to yourself as a Maverick? That seems like the kind of thing that is acceptable to be dubbed as by another person, but to continually reference yourself by a nickname seems...well...wrong. It is like the football player who refers to himself as "Moose" rather than his real name. It comes across as laughable.
- Two moderator comments: 1. Did he not seem a little outmatched in this setting? He was too timid and lacked a credibility as one who should be in charge of the debate at times. It was especially off-putting in the beginning when he was all but begging the two candidates to attack each other personally a-la Jerry Springer. 2. (and I am sure that the FoxNews talking-heads have picked up on this already) He sure seemed to differ to Obama a lot. He was fair with the direct aiming of questions to both candidates equally, but he instinctively shot his glance towards Obama when the rapid-fire responses would ensue. More than once he even cut-off McCain when he deemed it necessary to go on to another question, but he almost always allowed Obama to get his last word in.
- I was very nervous for McCain throughout the evening, because as the 90-minutes wore on there had been no direct exploitation of his P.O.W. experience. The moderator even gave him the perfect lead-in when he asked about Vietnam, but, for maybe the first time ever, McCain did not hijack the opportunity insert his prisoner experience. Thank God that he was able to shoehorn it into the conversation almost as the proverbial buzzer sounded....whew, disaster averted.
- Do you think that Obama will ever take the flag from his lapel again? If he is elected, will there ever be a time that we don't see it? Do you think there is a person on his staff whose sole job is to ensure its proper placement? How many of them do you think he owns?
- I'm tired of the bracelet-thing. Enough out of both of you!
- Too many failed one-liners out of McCain. I will give him credit that they tapered off as the night progressed, but particularly in the beginning, he kept attempting these pithy soundbites that failed miserably.
That's enough for now. Back to the books.
- Did anyone notice that John McCain was incapable of looking at Barack Obama when he was speaking about him? It was obvious in the first minutes of the debate that the moderator was interested in the two addressing each other personally, and Obama took to this like a fish to water, but McCain would not make eye-contact. I found this, if nothing else, really strange. I realize that he is not nervous - he has been doing it too long - but he certainly appeared uncomfortable, whereas Obama seemed right at home.
- Funny line of the night (it even made Obama audibly giggle): "Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record in the Senate....it's hard to reach across the aisle when you're that far to the Left." Very clever.
- A quick question of protocol: Is it okay to refer to yourself as a Maverick? That seems like the kind of thing that is acceptable to be dubbed as by another person, but to continually reference yourself by a nickname seems...well...wrong. It is like the football player who refers to himself as "Moose" rather than his real name. It comes across as laughable.
- Two moderator comments: 1. Did he not seem a little outmatched in this setting? He was too timid and lacked a credibility as one who should be in charge of the debate at times. It was especially off-putting in the beginning when he was all but begging the two candidates to attack each other personally a-la Jerry Springer. 2. (and I am sure that the FoxNews talking-heads have picked up on this already) He sure seemed to differ to Obama a lot. He was fair with the direct aiming of questions to both candidates equally, but he instinctively shot his glance towards Obama when the rapid-fire responses would ensue. More than once he even cut-off McCain when he deemed it necessary to go on to another question, but he almost always allowed Obama to get his last word in.
- I was very nervous for McCain throughout the evening, because as the 90-minutes wore on there had been no direct exploitation of his P.O.W. experience. The moderator even gave him the perfect lead-in when he asked about Vietnam, but, for maybe the first time ever, McCain did not hijack the opportunity insert his prisoner experience. Thank God that he was able to shoehorn it into the conversation almost as the proverbial buzzer sounded....whew, disaster averted.
- Do you think that Obama will ever take the flag from his lapel again? If he is elected, will there ever be a time that we don't see it? Do you think there is a person on his staff whose sole job is to ensure its proper placement? How many of them do you think he owns?
- I'm tired of the bracelet-thing. Enough out of both of you!
- Too many failed one-liners out of McCain. I will give him credit that they tapered off as the night progressed, but particularly in the beginning, he kept attempting these pithy soundbites that failed miserably.
That's enough for now. Back to the books.
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