The Presidential Debate

Speaking of the debate, I thought McCain did a very good job last night. I'm not sure why people thought Obama won it - he sounded more stridently liberal (e.g., class warfare rhetoric, "health insurance is a right", etc.) than in the previous debate. Like a lot of other people, I thought Brokaw did a terrible job; he turned it into a traditional debate instead of the more open format that was intended. My favorite part, though, was how McCain worked the rules. He seemed to get a disproportionate share of final answers to questions and he used those to take shots at Obama when Obama wasn't allowed, via the rules, to respond. And the one time when he did attempt to break the rules to respond to one of McCain's volleys, he was shouted down by Brokaw the Enforcer. Man I loved that part. For an old man, McCain's a clever guy.

And a lot of people are complaining that McCain didn't bring up Obama's connections with scurrilous folks like Ayers and Rezko. Actually I'm kinda glad that he didn't. That's not McCain's job. That the job of the right-wing blogosphere and punditry. And I think they are doing a pretty good job so far.