Third Presidential Debate: Thoughts

My first thought is that I'm glad there will be no more debates. In fact, I'm ready for the election to be over with already. I'm tired of "Joe, the plumber" and "Joe Six-Pack."

The clear winner to me, besides the afore-mentioned plumber, was the moderator, Bob Schieffer. I thought his questions were on point and edgy enough to elicit the most direct responses we've seen from either candidate so far. I was disappointed that Bob didn't ask about things such as Habeas Corpus, executive branch power, and climate change, but more than anything I had an overwhelming desire to have the thing over with. Yes, even a horse-race nerd like me tuned out repeatedly.

Which brings up the most crucial point of all: I bet that anyone who listened to the debate on the radio thought that McCain won handily. I thought he set an aggressive tone early and put Obama on the defensive. But the optics of the affair were a different matter entirely. McCain had the misfortune of appearing on TV. Seated next to a young man like Obama, the contrast couldn't have been more painfully obvious (just like the last debate). McCain also suffered the impediment (like most normal people) of not being able to conceal the fact that he was furiously thinking while Obama talked. This manifested itself by way of McCain's combination frozen-grin-darting-eyes syndrome, which was disconcerting, to say the least (I think the same problem doomed Hillary Clinton's debate performances during the primaries).

Yes, it is manifestly unfair that such important matters are decided on the strength of visual cues; but we crossed that bridge a long time ago, with the Nixon-Kennedy debates. Then, as now, the apparently unflappable youngster beat out the wily veteran mostly due to the effect of television.

Update: CrunchyCon has a similar, but pithier take on this.