Fun at the ol' town hall

Last night's presidential debate was just tons of fun. It was particularly entertaining to see an old man pretty much melt down in front of a national TV audience.

Poor John McSame had nothing new to say, had nothing he could pin on Barack Obama and had nothing that could rescue his campaign from further spiraling down the commode.

The most fun we had watching was to see how many times McBush said 'My Friends' during the debate. We got into double figures, although admittedly we didn't start counting until he was well into his My Friends routine. Apparently, some of his handlers had told him he wasn't coming across as friendly enough. So, My Friends, he had to go out and be friendly.

Didn't work.

He still came across an a crochetedy, grumpy old man who deserves the presidency because, By God, I'm a Hero. (For being shot down and surviving in a Viet Cong prison camp by giving classified information to the enemy.) He acted like he hasn't had a crap in a week.

He looked uncomfortable, unhappy and just plain old. Not in the least presidential.

Meanwile, Obama was calm, thoughtful and, frankly, presidential. (Check out the photo below. It just about tells it all.)

Folks who watched gave the debate overwhelmingly to Obama. They used words like home run, slam dunk.

Every poll I have been able to dig up gave the debate by a wide margin to Obama:

A national poll of debate watchers suggests that Sen. Barack Obama won the second presidential debate.

Fifty-four percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey conducted after the debate ended said that Obama did the best job in the debate, with 30 percent saying Sen. John McCain performed better.

According to the poll, 64 percent had a favorable opinion of Obama after the debate, up four points from before the event. Fifty-one percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of McCain after the debate unchanged from before its start.

That's 54 percent to 30 percent. Even the shills over at Fox News (you know, the Bush Broadcasting Corp.) were conceeding that McSame didn't do anything to help himself.

McSame's goal was to show himself as a leader, the man ready to come in and take the reins of power. Anyone who watched knows he failed miserably.

A majority said Obama seemed to be the stronger leader during the debate, 54 percent to 43 percent, and by a more than two to one margin -- 65 percent to 28 percent -- viewers thought Obama was more likable during the debate.

Frankly, it looked to me like McSame was channeling H. Ross Perot. It was not pretty.

In fact, if McSame had a chance before the debate, now, his campaign is pretty much dead in the water.

"McCain's advantage on leadership shrunk from 19 points in September to just five points this weekend," Holland said. "If Obama can use this debate to convince Americans that he is a stronger leader than McCain, he may be difficult to defeat."

A majority of debate watchers polled thought Obama was more intelligent, by a 57 percent to 25 percent margin over McCain. Debate watchers also thought Obama more clearly expressed his views by a two to one margin, 60 percent to 30 percent.

Sad, ain't it.

heh heh heh.

And so it goes.