The experts

As I sit here waiting to see what fresh disaster awaits Wall Street this morning I'm left to contemplate last night's "town hall" presidential debate. Here are some of my impressions.

• The debate was meticulously planned by both campains for weeks. The time limits, the moderator and audience make up were negotiated ad naseum in an attempt by each side to gain some advantage. Apparently neither candidate was involved in the negotiations because the didn't seem to give a shit about their own agreed upon "format" once things got rolling.
• Dan Rather was a pussy, he should have scolded them for their excesses of time.
• This town hall format was supposed to favor McCain, at least that's what all the "experts" were claiming...they were seriously wrong on that. The reason they thought that is because McCain is known for setting up just these kind of meetings up to interface with his followers. Since he's setting those meetings up it means that he is playing to a favorable crowd that isn't under the direction to not react to the candidates. Last night McCain was telling jokes to a crowd that was not laughing....there's nothing worse than a bombed joke, and I'm not talking about "bomb bomb bomb Iran", it just felt awkward.
• McCain looked REALLY OLD. I knew this time was coming, I didn't see it as much during the "static" first debate but seeing them moving around on the same stage set them in such stark contrast. I appreciate the fact that McCain is aged beyond his years due to his time as a POW but he looked terrible next to Obama. The impression this left on me was far greater than any single thing that either man said.
• I was watching the debate on CNN has I have every debate. They have this system on their HD broadcast where their panel of partisan experts blindly rate each candidate during the course of the debate. Interestingly they rarely actually make mention of those numbers after the debate, it's interesting because in both cases Obama was WAY ahead by the accounts of their own experts. Obama even beat McCain according to some of CNN's experts that claim to be right leaning.
• Also CNN continued to show a view of the stage once the debate was finished. McCain and his fembot left the stage relatively quickly, giving the audience what seemed like a perfunctionary thank you. The Obamas stayed on the stage for at least an additional twenty minutes talking with the audience panel, shaking hands and posing for pictures. It was a deft move on their part that I hope was noticed by more poeple than just me.