First of all, yes Irene, McCain showed up–was there ever any real doubt?

Obama hammered away on the war and the economy and then McCain hammered away at Obama on the fact that he may not understand stuff.  Obama was calm, cool and articulate; McCain was anger and contemptuous.  Obama made no mistakes in his presentation, McCain made a couple for one his statement on corporate taxes in the US was wrong.  But m fav was McCain’s oxymoron when he said that he would cut spending and yet supports the bailout.  Think about that for a moment.

But McCain’s use of some form of “you do not understand” made the viewer listen more closely to Obama’s answers and he did that well and with clarity and force.  McCain’s claim to hold the command of Foreign policy and national security was FINALLY put to bed.  Obama answered all points.

I know Americans have to have a winner and a loser, but sorry Irene, this debate was a draw.  Lots of punches and counter punches were thrown, some landed, some did not.  McCain was hesitant and obscure on some of this points.  His humor was flat.  Obama was well prepared and showed that he has a grasp of situations and solutions, but he lacked passion.  He should have hammered McCain on the plight of the workers, but let that slip from the fray.  He needs to talk to the working class and he fail in this debate.

All in all a good debate–only if you have no idea what a good debate is suppose to look like.  On to the next round, the VP debates next week–should be interesting if not amusing.