Debate Postmortem

Well, that's over. I guess it wasn't so much of a liveblog as an attempt at a transcript. David Gregory is saying something about "prize-fighters" scoring blows, but I'd say it is more like aging plug-uglies whacking away at each other with a serious hit. I can't think of a single thing except the odd preposition or adverb that I hadn't heard before.

Maybe the most notable point is negative: in the end there was no Captain Queeg moment; McCain did tend to natter on a bit but there was nothing to suggest that he's had a stroke, or is otherwise losing it. So, score one for McCain for not losing. Obama for his part was not as boring or wonky as he can be. But both of them were somewhat boring or wonky; both tended to drift into details that were bound to be beyond the average voter (even the average debate watcher). And nobody, nobody, had a Ronald Reagan moment, or a Lloyd Bentsen moment.

McCain seemed to have been coached to hammer away at his long experience, which was perhaps a two-edged sword--it was what sidetracked him into no more than marginally relevant ancient history. And he certainly seemed to be determined to tell us that on foreign policy, Obamna was "naive."

Obama was controlled, a bit bloodless, somewhat wonky--the curse of Democratic candidtes for a generation--but on none of these so fatally constricted as to wind up looking like John Kerry or Michael Dukakis. He never seemed to get rattled; he never lost his cool--but at times, I was praying that he would lose his cool, just to make things the least bit intereting.

I deliberately turned the sound down at the end so I wouldn't hear the postmortem. Now, to find out whether Chris Matthews agrees with me...

Update: The commentators are all remarking that McCain never made eye contact with Obama. I never noticed that.