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I haven’t had to review the entire thread so I may be saying something another Freeper has already said, but I think McCain’s tactic was probably geared to throw Obama off his game. I think Obama’s people figured they had to find a way to make McCain look weak compared to Obama so they wanted a direct confrontation-type debate where Obama could practice his body language and eye contact, could use his condescending “John” language, and could appear strong to voters. They probably figured it would work even better since McCain would be obviously more fatigued than Obama given his trip to Washington. I think they hoped Obama would look dominating and would cause McCain to lose his temper.

Instead, McCain calmly and simply explained his positions and used respectful language towards Obama. Here Obama had practiced his eye-rolling, his condescension, and his talking points and McCain refused to play the in-your-face game by talking to Lehrer or the camera instead of Obama and refusing to be drawn into a dirty fight. This threw Obama completely off and he instead looked angry and intimidating to voters rather than McCain. He had trouble adjusting to the peaceable McCain and occasionally slipped into the punk persona because that was exactly how he rehearsed the whole debate for three days, or more.

I think Lehrer probably did not let the questions be shown to either candidate but it doesn’t take a genius to know what type of questions would be asked, which is why Obama had a canned speech for each question. I do think Lehrer was encouraging more confrontation either because he was alerted to the Obama plans to provoke McCain to lose his temper or because he wanted controversy and ratings.

All in all, I think McCain came across reasonable, knowledgeable, and especially experienced. Obama came across petty, annoyed, and unable to control the debate. I imagine both sides will claim victory and both sides will feel like a perceived weakness has been countered: McCain as temperamental and Obama as nonconfrontational. They both sent messages to the undecideds and only time will tell which message got through best.