Paddy's Take On The Debate

I didn't watch the debate as it was happening, (partially because I get crazy nervous, partially an experiment) so I'm just wading into the spin and meme's going on this morning.

Substantially it looks like a draw, but in the one and only debate on Foreign Policy if Obama gets a draw, that's a win. There seems to be some consensus that Obama missed a few opportunities to wham McCain on the economy and that at times he seemed a bit "bloodless". (they really are breaking out their thesauruses on this election aren't they?)

Now, the surface stuff and optics? Obama won by a landslide. McCain looked old and pissed ("cranky grandpa" according to Mike Barnicle), he wouldn't look Obama in the eye, and McCain umm'd more than Obama. Obama seemed collected and smoother than usual. Add in he's taller, younger and better looking? Slam.

Obama made the case that he was "presidential" and as someone wrote (can't remember who, I'll credit it as soon as I can), Obama looked more Will Smith than Wesley Snipes, and middle america can deal with that as president.