Brief post-debate thoughts

I plan to bump myself (less painful that way) in an hour or so, but can't resist getting this out of my system. I get to indulge my numbering-mania, too. So it's a win|win all around.

I'll always be honest with you, so...

1. John McCain did a great job — of reminding me why he was among my least-favorite primary candidates. He hasn't a clearly-defined, deeply-thought-out ideology. He can only combat Obamessiah's hard-left radical liberalism with a patchwork of cobbled-together this and that.
2. What's worse, Obama — the worst candidate for that office in memory — came off as articulate, assured, in command of the facts and the situation, unflappable, confident. McCain came off as sputtery, stammery, uninspired and uninspiring. I said Biden looked particularly old (among other things) debating Palin. McCain looked particularly old debating Obama.
3. Sadly, in this post-modern age, image is everything. Evidence: Clinton I and II. The brainless and the clueless and the singed-consciences will be swayed by Obama's assured and confident nothing/bad. McCain did not do what he had to do.
4. Can't we just flip the ticket? I know, I know, we can't. But Palin is out there campaigning her heart out to enthusiastic, overflow crowds, bringing the fight to Obama — and there's McCain looking senescent and windless, sounding as if he's doing a bad job of cobbling together badly-memorized phrases and bringing them out in no particular order.
   
5. I knew we were doomed when Brokejaw said, "From all of these questions -- and from tens of thousands submitted online -- I have selected a long list of excellent questions on domestic and foreign policy." He selected. The lefty, dinosaur MSM talking-head selected. So any questions that might have made his candidate look bad were bypassed, and only those questions that served his unrepresentative interests and purposes were featured. Hence, no icky questions about abortion, character, philosophy, qualification, Ayers, or the like.
6. While I'm on Brokaw, was there ever a lamer moderator? Oh, I suppose there has been. But good heavens, man — the whining! Just STOP IT. Stop whining about the candidates talking when the little lighty-whities go out! Moderate! Man up! Lead!
   
7. Who's advising McCain? Obama keeps landing the same blows, and McCain offers no answer. I'm nobody, and I know they're coming. They don't? Duhh.
8. Huge missed opportunity for McCain. Obama said, "No, I am confident about the American economy." A sharp, on-game McCain would have said, "Senator Obama, I'm glad to hear you are confident about the American economy. So, would you say that the fundamentals are sound?" But no such McCain was there, so it went unsaid.
9. Another huge missed opportunity was when Obama, with that heavily serious demeanor he fakes so well, sonorously attempted to deflect criticism of his insane foreign policy mistakes by citing McCain singing "Bomb bomb Iran." A more deft McCain — which is to say, not McCain — would have pivoted instantly and said, "So, Barack — since everyone knows I was joking, are you saying that all your foreign policy statements have been jokes? At least that would make some sense of them."
   
10. One bright spot: who knew John McCain was a John Frame fan? Brokaw asked McCain to prioritize health care, energy and entitlement reform. McCain replied, "I think you can work on all three at once, Tom. ...we can do them all at once. There's no -- and we have to do them all at once." Who knew McCain was a tri-perspectivalist?

A sane, sound and intelligent electorate would see through it all, slap down Obama, and hand McCain a two-digit landslide. Clinton's first victory assured me that we have no such electorate. His second nailed the coffin for me.

So I'll be worried at least until one candidate concedes, and doesn't then pull a Gore. Then, regardless of who wins, my worries will take on new specificity.