Two down, one to go

I realize it's been awhile since my byline crossed the blog ... nothing like politics to bring me back!

Tonight's second presidential debate was a tad boring and predictable. McCain came off as snarky. Obama came off as a bit more nuanced. Tom Brokaw somehow wins the bitter award.

Since the candidates rarely say anything new or different in these debates, half the fun has been watching the moderators. Jim Lehrer was like a stern father -- "look at each other when you talk!" Gwen Ifill was ... well all I can picture is the Queen Latifah version. Tom Brokaw was more sassy tonight than I've seen him, and the whole debate setup seemed a little wonky and loose (despite Brokaw's best efforts).

And some brief thoughts on what the candidates said tonight...

-Both have time sticking to time restrictions. Wow.

-Yes, everyone is talking about how McCain called Obama "that one." It was condescending which, sadly, is not entirely unusual for the Mac.

-I thought it was funny that McCain sought to buy himself time with the Treasury Chief question. He first replied "not you, Tom" and paused for nonexistent laughter. Then all he could come up with was the CEO of a company that laid of 10 percent of its workforce this week.

-Along with most of his other classes, McCain must have failed math at the Naval Academy. He keeps talking about adding things that aren't possible. For example, he wants to go buy every failing mortgage in the country. Uh, how are you gonna pay for that, pal? He refuses to raise taxes and at the rate we're going, they're going to have to invent a new number to describe the national debt. (Freezing all programs is not an option -- some people in this country, those who don't have seven houses, actually depend on those programs.) Also a mathematical problem, the troops -- how are you going to get the increases you want in Afghanistan while maintaining surge numbers in Iraq? The numbers aren't there so we either need a random enlistment rush, a draft or troops out of Iraq.

-Watching CNN's undecided voter tracking was actually really interesting. The approval numbers dropped below the middle line every time the candidates went negative. This doesn't bode well for McCain, since he spent more time than Obama doing smearing.

-McCain made a comment about wanting to chair a commission with "smart people." My friends and I have been debating the importance of smarts recently -- to be precise, since Sarah Palin came on the scene. Some conservative friends maintain that having "the smarts" is not entirely necessary to win hearts and votes. I thought it was funny that McCain puts trust in intelligent people to sort through tough situations...

-If McCain says "my friends" one more time I'm going to hurl. Can we at least get him a thesaurus? In debate three I want to hear "my acquaintances" or maybe "my homies."

Despite all this, the next 28 days will be filled with assertions that Obama is a gay Muslim terrorist. Yay democracy!