The Debate, or "What Senator Obama Doesn't Seem to Understand..."

First and foremost, let me start by articulating my displeasure at Senator Obama's performance. Maybe this whole "Campaign Suspension" move by McCain worked, throwing Obama off kilter, but still... I wanted to see him mop the floor with McCain. What I saw was a lukewarm performance by both candidates.

McCain appeared annoyed and agitated. Obama looked stiff and seemed to be on the defensive most of the time. Overall, a dismal performance by the next potential leaders of the free world.

I'm going to point out the top three moments of the first half of the debate (before I had too much wine and ended up passing out in front of the T.V. in boredom/disgust).

1. McCain giving Senator Kennedy props in his opening statement. Brilliant move designed to make him look every bit the "Maverick" they're selling him to be... see, he knows how to reach across the aisle! He just evoked the name of one of the most hated democrats in history, Ted Kennedy! Wow! (Yeah, right.)

2. This is more than a moment... but Senator Obama spent a lot more time looking at the audience at home than he did at Senator McCain, the moderator, or the audience in front of him. He's selling his wares to the American people, not the folks to his immediate left or right. I haven't yet decided if this is good or bad... I like that he was talking to the folks in my living room, but I don't like how contrived that felt... eh.

3. McCain repeated, over and over again, "What Senator Obama doesn't seem to understand..." yadda yadda yadda. The first time, it worked. The third time, I started to get annoyed. It reminded me of a scene in "Harold and Kumar Go To WhiteCastle," which I saw on Comedy Central a couple of weeks ago. In the scene, Harold (I think) gives a vicious tongue lashing to a couple colleagues of his who screwed him over. In response, one of the colleagues says, "****boy? Did you just call me ****boy? He just called me ****boy." And Harold calls him out for repeating that phrase over and over again, obviously stalling while he thought of something to say back. I felt like McCain was using that phrase to stall while he gathered his thoughts for a response. I might have been more receptive to it if he came up with a zinger in response, but he didn't really wow me. Neither of them did.

Final Verdict: I'm going to vote for Obama, if nothing else, to ensure that Sarah Palin is as far away from Cheif Executive status as possible.

But I must say, I CAN'T WAIT for the Veep Debate!