Debate Analysis or Whatever II

Sure it was the dullest debate ever, but the problem has less to do with the format or rules than it has to do with these godawful candidates.

At least these guys had their bullshit meter on:

With McCain and Obama, you have to print out the transcript and read carefully to fully appreciate how they glided past sharp questions. Because both have gone through dozens of such encounters over the past couple of years, and because Obama in particular is an exceptionally fluent speaker, their answers can sound plausible — even when the fog machine is going full blast.

And:

Both Obama and McCain were once cult-of-personality candidates, running on their inspirational personal biographies and reformist profiles more than on their policy records.

At least in this format, unfortunately, neither of them had especially appealing personalities. The combination of the two, as at the first debate in Mississippi, gave the evening a tense mood that contributed to the feeling of time hanging heavy.

McCain’s contribution to the peevish tone was more obvious, as when he referred to Obama as “that one.”

Obama was, as ever, cooler and more poised. As the younger man — trying to make history as the first African-American president — he surely feels a special imperative to convey calm and reassurance.

He does it so well, however, that he did not do much to convey what he is passionate about. Neither man showed much humor. Self-deprecation seems not to come naturally to either one. The I-love-me quotient has rarely been higher in one of these debates.

It was a stark contrast to the personality and even warmth that both Biden and Palin showed at last week’s St. Louis encounter.

They're being kind, of course.