There are a few things to be said about this debate aside from content:

Surprisingly, McCain was very awkward in his favorite format. It had less to do with his body language, which obviously is a result of his wartime injuries, and more with conscious, strategic decisions that were made beforehand. Being personable is OK, but invading personal space of people you meet for the first time is not necessarily a good idea, unless your name is Ron Artest and you are finally learning to play defense.

McCain prides himself as a virtuoso Town Hall format debater, but he might have overestimated his perceived ability to relate directly to the listeners. He spoke with more clarity and conviction than his opponent, who at times struggled with continuity and failed to settle into a fluent, comfortable speech pattern. This advantage was somewhat lost though, because McCain seemed extremely uncomfortable. He kept moving laterally in front of the person he was addressing: he would pause, move a few steps to the right – then back to the left and so on… This bizarre McHokey-Pokey made everyone a little nervous and distracted from the actual points he was trying to make.

The one thing that he managed to do with natural ease was to radiate the unsettling anger that was first introduced in the previous debate. There were hidden frowns encrypted even in his smiles. It is becoming obvious that this anger is not a momentary condition and could be coming from a permanent place, deeply embedded within McCain’s psyche.

This debate is not going to change anyone’s opinion. Maybe McCain won on the issues, maybe he lost on presentation, but the margins will always be too small to give us a clear winner. If there were 50 more of these debates between now and November 4th – the result would be exactly the same: uninspired and predictable ties…in more ways than one (Obama wore a blue one and McCain, of course, went with red)