1) After weeks of contentious, slimy, Rovian ads, out comes McCain in his “Sweet Old Man” persona. For the first half of the debate he was quite charming.
2) Who, other than John McCain and Sarah Palin, is talking about “defeat” in Iraq? If we pulled out today, we could claim “victory” as reasonably as at any time in recent history on in the forseeable future.
Out of one side of their mouths we hear how well the surge is working, and out of the other, that we can never leave. Which is it?

3) You could almost see McCain reminding himself to attack – it didn’t seem genuine, or even germane sometimes. Obama pretty much laughed him off.
Speaking of which – Kissinger? First of all, McCain sounded like Grandpa when he’s having one of those moments where Being Loud = Being Right. And second of all, he’s wrong:

“Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says the United States should begin direct negotiations with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program. Kissinger, speaking Monday at George Washington University along with four other former U.S. State Department secretaries, said the next president should initiate high-level discussions with Iran “without conditions,” ABC News reported.”

I’d call it an Obama win, although not the beatdown some were hoping for. Still, he pads his lead, and looks presidential doing so. And it only gets easier from here.

P.S. Jim Lehrer was outstanding.

That’s supposed to be fidgety, by the way.

Typo Fatigue Letting the Spellcheck Choose the First Word = Bad Idea.

That’s one of the many popular theories that’s on the internet to explain what McCain could have meant by his statement that South Koreans are three inches taller than North Koreans.

Child development due to malnutrition is the most popular, however, there are many other malnourished populations that are tall. T
Here are some more theories:

One I found interesting on the “live blogging” during the debate was that the US soldiers are taller than the South Korean soldiers and that South Koreans send their tallest solders to the DMZ zone as a matter of posturing and pride.

Another interesting theory was the inbreeding of US soldiers into the South Korean population.

Even though it is quite interesting looking at these possible scenarios, but John McCain could have save me from this journey of undiscovery.

John McCain you are a complete idiot. The only physical differences from the North Koreans and the South Koreans is the line America drew in 1945 called the DMZ.

Young South Koreans want unification regardless of how strongly the US government is against it. The other rich man’s idiot son George W. was talking about moving some of the American troops from Korea to Iraq. One of the main reason those troops are there are not to protect South Korean from North Korean but to stop unification.

Kissinger? Really? What, Robert Mugabe and Alexander Lukashenko were unavailable for comment?

Johnathan Sidney McCain III didn’t win any new voters tonight, that’s for sure, and that’s the most important thing.

Personally, I kept yelling at Obama with great ideas all through the debate – a few times it seemed he heard me. I wanted McCain to be disembowled on the stage so I was disappointed. BUT – after a bit of reflection – our boy did good!

The guy that said he stared Putin in the eye didn’t have the guts – or the curtesy – to go eye ball to eyeball with Obama – maybe because McCain has a hard time looking a guy in the eye when he’s lying about him.

Don’t negotiations involve talking?

“Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.”

Barack’s performance was Presidential (isn’t that refreshing?) while McCain seemed callous and perhaps sneering at moments. There were too many “Senator Obama just doesn’t understand” rebuttals, which made McCain come off as someone who feels Barack is underneath him, quite fitting considering the sordid history of Ole Miss. Barack Obama was extraordinary given the circumstances: 20 year Senator/War Hero vs. a naive first term Senator during a time of crisis.

While McCain may be considered the winner by the pundits, the fact is all Obama needed was a draw. Given the dour state of McCain’s campaign, with perhaps a need to knock Obama out of the stadium on foreign policy to get the polls back in the republican’s favor, I think Obama wins.