Debate #1

Just some random thoughts on the debate last night:

Overall I give Obama the edge. He was fluid and calm as usual, and I thought he laid out his points with structure and with much more clarity than McCain. McCain had some really good retorts and one-liners that made Obama squirm and feel uncomfortable, but I think Obama stayed on message for the most part.

The other thing that was pretty obvious to me was that Obama was doing a great job of looking at the camera (the American people), looking at the host, or looking directly at McCain when he was talking. McCain on the other hand looked terribly uncomfortable most times when he wasn't talking and looked either down at his notes or at the host, never at the camera and never at Obama. I think this is a mistake. Even an admittedly poor communicator, Dubya, would look directly at his opponent and at the camera during debates, to my knowledge.

Granted, none of my analysis addresses the content of the debates. But so much of these debates are about the one-liner type clips that will be used for the evening and cable news broadcasts, and I think style is very important. So IMHO, presidential debate #1 goes to Obama. What do you think?