So generally, I’d say it was about 50-50.

McCain appeared to be the far more confident speaker, better at delivery; Obama stuttered, “um”-ed and paused a lot more.

Obama answered questions more directly, and appeared not to be trying to twist realities to create a smokescreen “truth” that wasn’t really accurate, the way McCain did quite a few times.

McCain’s constant “Senator Obama seems not to understand” refrain was a clear tactic his team hammered into him that he better use, and it was really annoying and obvious after the third time and just insulting after the umpteenth time. And it was a shame Obama wasn’t better at recovering from it without ending up on the offensive. It would have been pretty easy to do, simply by going, “Well, actually, what Senator McCain doesn’t seem to understand is…”

In fact, McCain gave Obama quite a few openings to really lay in about McCain’s voting record related to the current economic crisis with cold, hard facts, and for some reason Obama held off, went for generalities, and instead kept focusing on Bush, which I found disappointing. He also never went in for the kill when he could have, like when McCain said in a general way, “I’ve never supported tax cuts for the rich” (or however he phrased it) with absolutely no examples to back it up, and Obama could have gone right in there and proved him wrong, but he didn’t do so with any real authority.

Obama had the only good, memorable comeback of the night with the axe vs. scalpel metaphor. He also generally did a good job of deflecting McCain’s accusations of him. I just wish he’d done as much direct confronting as he did deflecting. I think he did an okay job at it, but he could have been just a little stronger.

McCain, on the other hand, tended to ramble a bit…especially during his discussion of North Korea…and really didn’t answer much of anything except for his immediate, across-the-board spending freeze solution (how bad would that be?!?).  I loved (cough) how he said how he loved the veterans and would take care of them, despite not explaining any programs he’d support to do so. Same with the health care issue. Also, the whole “I’ll deflect any direct answer of what I actually did/will do with my standard ‘I’m a maverick!!!’ and ‘I’m not Miss Congeniality’ catch phrases” tactic is just really, really annoying. Senator McCain, saying you’re a maverick doesn’t tell us anything. All it tells us is that you’ll be a completely unpredictable president. Tell us what. you. are. going. to. do. And defend your record. I mean, well, obviously you can’t, because much of it is indefensible. Which is why you pull out the maverick bullshit. But really. We’re not that dumb.

Anyway. I thought McCain’s closing was stronger in terms of validating his belief that he’s up for the job; Obama’s instance on using “we” rather than “I” to sum up what he will do felt less strong of a  power “job interview” closing. However, his focus on restoring the relationship of America with the rest of the world was a good one.

Overall, I wouldn’t say either candidate was a clear “winner.” I think at best both candidates probably kept their base solid, but may not have been energetic or skilled enough to have pulled anyone in from the other side, or from the independents. If I was a middle-of-the-road person, I think it would have been hard for me to to decide what to do; although perhaps Obama had a slight edge in that he’s offering something new within a tired system. Or at least, he says he is. I’m not convinced he is all that far left, actually. I think his administration would support measured change, at best. But at this point, any change is better than none.

Now I’m looking forward to next week’s presidential debate. I don’t expect it to be satisfying in terms of debate. Watching it’ll be like watching an tony-winning actor trying to perform a dramatic dialogue with a plaster manniquen equipped with a miked, pre-recorded voicebox stuck inside it. But it will certainly be an interesting experiment to watch.