Obama could have been snappier for my taste. Too much canned stuff. McCain could have said “my friend” about 10 times less. If I were an independent and thinking of voting for him that tic would irritate the hell out of me. It occurs to me that “my friend” erupts out of McCain as a subconscious counter to his actual feeling of not liking the people he’s talking to. Reaching across the table for McCain has often meant he has had to be restrained. And McCain pacing around behind Obama while Obama was speaking. WTF? Tom! Tell your boy to sit down!

The Independents — the still undecided!?– seem to have been more impressed with Obama’s low-key competence than with McCain’s nervous pacing and guarantees to “my friends.”

Listening to McCain in the re-runs I heard him say that as President he would be as responsible as he was in his ‘Military Career.” That ought to bring cold chills to every one who cares. McCain, through reckless behavior, wrecked three military aircraft, perhaps the most damage done by any Navy pilot in non-combat flights.

Not only that, in the moment of greatest need for responsibility and action, as hundreds of men fought fire and explosion on the USS Forrestal, McCain watched events unfold on closed circuit TV and then took off with R.W Apple, long time N Y Times reporter, to Saigon “for some much needed R&R” in McCain’s own words. Not my kind of responsibility. In fact, possibly dereliction of duty. Certainly a hole in place of a heart.

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The Second Presidential Debate [From Political Wire]

Tonight’s debate wasn’t even close. Sen. Barack Obama ran away with it — particularly when speaking about the economy and health care. Talking about his mother’s death from cancer was very powerful. On nearly every issue, Obama was more substantive, showed more compassion and was more presidential.

In contrast, Sen. John McCain was extremely erratic. Sometimes he was too aggressive (referring to Obama as “that one.”) Other times, he just couldn’t answer the question (on how he would ask Americans to sacrifice.) And his random attempts at jokes (hair transplants?) were just bad.

Tom Brokaw was terrible as moderator. His fixation with the rules — particularly when the candidates were not complaining — was distracting and a disservice to everyone. The format didn’t work very well, but Brokaw made it worse.

Other reactions:

Andrew Sullivan: “This was, I think, a mauling: a devastating and possibly electorally fatal debate for McCain… I’ve watched a lot of debates and participated in many. I love debate and was trained as a boy in the British system to be a debater. I debated dozens of times at Oxofrd. All I can say is that, simply on terms of substance, clarity, empathy, style and authority, this has not just been an Obama victory. It has been a wipe-out. It has been about as big a wipe-out as I can remember in a presidential debate. It reminds me of the 1992 Clinton-Perot-Bush debate. I don’t really see how the McCain campaign survives this.”

Ezra Klein: “Tonight was supposed to be John McCain’s night, but it was the first clear debate win Obama has scored over the course of this campaign — including the primary. McCain, as it turned out, was badly disadvantaged by the format. This debate was more physical than previous encounters. And McCain, for reasons of age and injuries and height, has a less commanding physical presence than Obama.”

Mark Halperin: “McCain spent much of the evening trying to define Obama on his terms, but never broke all the way through.”

Marc Ambinder: “CW says that John McCain had a 90 minute window to turn his campaign around – to put into play the McCain Resurgence Strategy, if you will, and if that’s the CW threshold, I don’t think McCain met it.”

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