THE FIRST DEBATE: MISSISSIPPI'S BURNING (WITH BOREDOM NOW)

The only opinion that I could come up with about the opening Presidential candidates' debate was that both participants seemed to rather suck at debating.

Obama hasn't lost my vote, but I just wish that he would have stopped opening his counterpoints by agreeing with McCain so damn much. Actually, I take that back. Obama was doing something far worse by saying, what felt like about sixteen dozen times, "John is right about this," "John is right about that." When you say, "I agree that (fill in the subject your opponent was just discussing here)..." what happens is that you are keeping yourself at the ideological level of the opposition, and can keep yourself in a position to extend that statement with why you think that the other guy's opinion is fucked. But when it's "You are right about..." even once in the course of a debate, that's when you're giving a concession of ability to your opponent and can give an audience the impression that you're merely chiming in with what he or she just said. Obama should have had enough practice through the numerous primary debates in order to avoid such a sophomoric mistake.

And the other major mistake Obama made: breaking in during McCain's accusations by saying stuff along the lines of "That's not true" mid-McCain rant. When you break into your opponents turn to speak like that, it's the equivalent of those courtroom TV shows and cable news programs where the person in one of the opposite boxes of the split screen is shaking his or her head while someone else is stating their case. Nobody is being swayed by such behavior and it's only a useless distraction. Just be patient and wait your turn to tell McCain he's full of shit. We already have witnessed both his running mate and himself engaging in questionable honesty, so there's no need to protest so desperately.

On the other hand, I was waiting for McCain to tell Obama "Hey, you lil' rugrat, get the fuck off of my lawn!" It seemed like McCain's main strategy walking into the hall was to try to belittle Obama's world view with saying how he "just doesn't understand" at the beginning of every turn he had to speak. McCain's new BFF, David Letterman, used to have a frequent guest on his old NBC show, a comedian named George Miller, and I recall that as Miller would enter the show and walk up to Letterman's desk, the words "Desperately searching for a gimmick" would blink at the bottom of the screen. If McCain ever has the cojones to reschedule his appearance on The Late Show, Letterman should flash the same phrase. McCain's desperate gimmick was to state that Obama "just didn't understand" seemingly anything and everything that Obama had just said. The only thing that McCain accomplished with this tactic was convincing people that he himself did not understand why, the more he kept saying this type of shit, the more clueless he himself sounded.

In all, the opening debate was a dud in that if you had already formulated your opinion about either candidate, you had not really been either encouraged or discouraged about your views, and if you were undecided, you were still in that state of voter limbo, if not apathy. But who am I kidding? Nobody under the age of 45 was actually watching this 90 minute non-stop gabfest, since it was Friday night in America, when most folks are out getting drunk and trying to get laid and all that. The only time that they'll pay any real attention is if they stay away from the polls on Election Day, while McCain's age peers do show up and overwhelmingly elect him, and he promptly generates enough public support to convince Congress to reinstate the draft. Then those hedonistic little flakes'll be sorry.

But, these debates truly bring out the inner politigeek in folks like myself, so despite my disappointment, I'll be watching and hope that things move up a notch and improve.



And one more thing... hey McCain, try looking at Obama once in a while when he is speaking. When you're all scrunched up and turned away like you're trying to avoid eye contact it almost gives the impression to the viewer that you're scared of looking at black people or something. But then again, many of your supporters out there in so-called Mainstream America may appreciate that.