Your internal alarm clock has a sense of irony?

My kids were bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 7 a.m. so I'm probaby not as sympathetic as I could be.

I watched a bit, but was grateful to turn away to Stargate Atlantis at the halfway point. I saw McCain progressively deteriorating physically -- watch the left eye and cheek. If he were my relative, I'd actually be concerned for him. He also blinked a whole lot and never seemed to look at Obama, being half-turned away. Whereas Obama consistently called him John and watched him.

I wonder if this went right over the heads of most viewers.

I thought McCain came off fairly well in terms of being coherent, and much more in line with the Senator I used to like even if I agreed with him (which is also why I think his candidacy and record for the past few years is such a betrayal). Not that Obama did badly, he was as consistent and likeable as ever. It's just that McCain didn't flame out.

My kids were bright eyed and bushy-tailed at 7 a.m. so I'm probaby not as sympathetic as I could be.

Mine were too, but luckily are old enough to fend for themselves and not bug us. (Those days are coming Cash, I promise!)

The dogs on the other hand...

Jasmine and Pisces were running the Doggyapolis 500 Road Rally around our bedroom, using the bed as a launching point.

Need. Coffee.

Your internal alarm clock has a sense of irony?

I'm pretty sure mine is just a nasty SOB.

Beaking news is saying Paul Newman has died of cancer. Fuck.

Oh, crap.

Aw, sad.

Just saw it confirmed on USA Today's website. Crap, crap, crap.

Yeah, I'm really sad about Paul Newman.

I watched the first hour of the debate and then went to bed. My impression was that Obama didn't blow me away, but McCain seemed like he was trying WAY too hard to look relaxed. And his "passionate" voice was seriously nervous and (I hate the word but can't think of a better one) shrill.

I also noticed that Obama was repeating his larger points over and over (as was McCain), but had a much larger stable of specifics to back them up with. McCain repeated himself a LOT. Which probably won't wind up hurting him because the press only wants sound bites anyway.

I was disappointed that Obama kept going back to the "we shouldn't have gone to war in the first place" point. He can't be the candidate of the future if he won't answer the question "What are we going to do in Iraq NOW" Of COURSE we should never have gone into Iraq in the first place. But we're there now, and he's going to have to deal with that. He talked a little about his 16-month withdrawal plan, but there was too much "I was right 6 years ago, nyah!" for me.

I thought Obama did a great job laughing off the ad hominem attacks - it made McCain look desperate. Also caught the subtle trick of calling him "John" - made sure the audience knew they were peers/colleagues without having to directly confront the experience question.

I had to laugh at McCain's "most liberal Senator" swipe because it took me a beat to realize he hadn't meant it as a compliment. Probably the reason I'm not a swing voter.