I can't believe there are people whinging about him being a MEAN MAN. How can you look at him and feel anything but pity?

Being a cocky prick doesn't make you a MEAN MAN, it makes you an intolerable son of a bitch. There are fine lines here.

"oh noes, i droffed my teef"

I agree with all of this. Definitely the best of a series of pretty good debates. Though one of my students said, McCain was great! And I wanted to say, Oh so you were drunk or something because that old man got his ass handed to him. I didn't, though.

This was also the best debate because McCain was addressing himself to either Obama or the moderator (or far too often, Joe the tax-evading plumber and who gives a cock-shake about HIM amirite?) so he couldn't say "my friends" a million times until each utterance of that dread phrase was a screwdriver being driven into my brain. So that was good, too.

I suppose by comparison to the other two debates, McCain did significantly better in this one. He still obviously can't overcome his hostility at Obama stealing the election from him, and he's still got an earmark fetish, and idiotic tax plans, etc. but he did better.

It just sort of interests me how he picks one line and keeps coming back to it all the time. It's either my friends or earmarks or Joe the pretend plumber. He doesn't seem to realize that after the tenth time he goes back to it, it's gotten stale.

Well said, Irish. Also, if you guys haven't seen it, check the Frontline on both McCain and Obama, please do. Seeing the history of the two men, one can't help to see Obama as genuine, while McCain totally looks as if he thinks his success is owed to him in some manner.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/

I just submitted the Frontline Documentary, so please Vote Up. Simon666 is right about its significance and it helps balance out the negative and spin in order to portray the most important values of the candidates.

Honestly, if voters in one day were just shown this documentary, read "The Audacity of Hope" and "Faith of out Fathers", browsed the candidates websites, and heard the convention speeches, that one day could easily replace our whole election cycle, and leave voters better informed than they are now.

as it should be

...sure, because who wants to hear what they actually talked about.

well we already know what Obama talked about since his ads actually address the issues

Well sadly, if you've been paying attention for the past 2 years, you heard almost nothing new. They've gone over their policy positions ad nauseum, so hearing what they actually talked about rarely tells you much more about the candidates than you already knew.

Really the most interesting thing about the debates is how they present their ideas and react to each other in a high pressure situation. McCain grimacing, rolling his eyes and gritting his teeth says a lot when juxtaposed to Obama remaining cool and smiling occasionally.

And in terms of laying out their ideas Obama was much more clear and concise. If you didn't know who Joe the Plumber was McCain didn't tell you who he was very well. He seemed more like a generic "Joe Six-Pack" metaphor, despite him making 250,000 a year, which compared to a lot of us is "rich". If you didn't know who ACORN was, or why they "threaten the very fabric of our democracy", you probably still don't. Though you do know what McCain thinks about the "health" of mothers.