I'm voting for "That One"

...or at least, I would if I could vote in the US Presidential election.

So - what can we say about the second Presidential debate, apart from the fact that it was a bit of a snoozefest, and that Tom Brokaw is an idiot?

I think McCain's reference to Obama as "That One" says it all really. How unbelievably patronising and rude. Whereas Obama politely references McCain as "Senator McCain" throughout, McCain at this point in the debate can't even bring himself to use any part of Obama's name or title.



The disdain McCain feels towards Obama is so strong you can practically feel it radiating off the screen. It was there in the first debate too, when McCain couldn't look at or address Obama directly. Jeez John, why don't you just come out and call Obama "uppity" - you know you want to.

Oh, and here's another moment I missed while watching the debate the first time. McCain can't (or won't) shake Obama's hand at the end - notice the sidestep as he forces Barack to shake Cindy's hand instead.



Grumpy old git. Rude bastard. Hope you lose - big-time.

Here's Obama's really rather good response to McCain on Iraq during the debate:



I read this cool comment on Talking Points Memo after the first debate, by a reader called TB:

I think people really are missing the point about McCain's failure to look at Obama. McCain was afraid of Obama. It was really clear - look at how much McCain blinked in the first half hour. I study monkey behavior - low ranking monkeys don't look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that.

You betcha!

Thanks to Al Rodgers at DailyKos for the next lot of responses from viewers of the debate:

















In other news, the wingnut Freepers have lost the plot (and McCain lost them today) - thanks heaps to noweasels at DailyKos for taking one for the team and venturing over there - dude, the bleach and hot showers are over here... These are my three favorite Freeper comments from that thread:

"That's about where I threw my remote at the TV and turned it off. Got an absentee ballot sitting on my desk right now and half tempted to go down the capital steps tomorrow and burn it instead of voting. The Republican candidate suggesting bailing out individual home owners. The REPUBLICAN. I need a drink..."

"I was hesitant to put the McCain yard signs up in the first place. I guess I'll take them down."

"John, John, John, when will you learn that you can't possibly out-liberal a true-to-the-rotten-core MEGA-LIBERAL? Please try to not totally turn off your base - it would be nice if some of us showed up and voted in 4 weeks... If you think that the impact of attracting a few more so-called undecided moderates/liberals through Evita-like displays of charity at the public trough is worth more than your entire conservative base, you are into super-denial and delusion. DON'T TOTALLY BLOW IT!"

Awwww! Poor widdle wingnuts!

If you want an I'm voting for "That One" T-shirt (or pretty much any other item of clothing), head on down to CafePress - darthstar or Big Change. Or do a search on "that one" at CafePress - there are loads more designs up already.

McCain came across to me as old, old, old. His voice sounded really wobbly at times - as if he were either really nervous, or really angry, or maybe just a bit senile. All that shuffling around and rictus-grinning didn't help his cause, either. And his voice got on my nerves something rotten! I don't know if it was the audio on my computer or what, but every time he spoke, all I could hear was the whistling of air though his false teeth. Ugh!

And Obama? Well as always he was the epitome of laid-back, well-informed, unflappable cool. Love him!

Sue and I discovered the best place to watch the debate is at MyDebates, a sub-site of MySpace. It's actually really good (all Flash-based, with nary a blinking background in sight), and even gave us a countdown to the start of the debate so we wouldn't miss it. This is my favourite part of the site:



Pretty, ain't it?

...and finally, just because I think it's such an awesome picture and it makes me get a bit mushy:



Tags: Barack Obama, Barack, Obama, John McCain, McCain, debate, Presidential debate, second Presidential debate, I'm voting for that one, That One, Tom Brokaw, Daily Kos, noweasels, Al Rodgers, CafePress, darthstar, Big Change, YouTube, video, Talking Points Memo, TPM, MyDebates, MySpace, FreeRepublic, Freepers, US politics, US Presidential election.