Town Hall Presidential Debate Reaction

Some reaction points regarding tonight's town hall presidential debate:

-->Regarding overall debate performance, Obama earned an A and McCain earned a C. Obama was the distinct winner of this presidential debate, which comes as an interesting occurrence considering McCain has been the one begging Obama to engage in town hall events throughout this general election season.

--> This was Obama's best debate performance yet. The eloquence and pitch perfect construction of his answers, involving just the right degree of past, present, and future reflection of the topic at hand, allowed Obama to distinguish himself throughout the course of the debate.

-->McCain's answers seemed a bit muddled at times, and his debate poise was absolutely dreadful. McCain appeared to be somewhat limping around the stage, leaning over and holding onto the back of his chair and the audience railing quite often, breathing heavily into the microphone, etc. McCain's most perplexing behavior was clearly the constant wandering about the stage during the answer periods of Obama, which will likely register with viewers as quite rude and bizarre.

-->When Obama would be critical of McCain's record and policies, it would come off as a clear and measure retort of his opponent. Conversely, when McCain would be critical of Obama's record and policies, it was often obvious that he was engaging in distortion (considering only moments prior, Obama had stated the precise opposite sentiments of what McCain was claiming), and such efforts by McCain came across as snide and tone deaf in a town hall debate setting.

-->Regarding Tom Brokaw as the moderator, it did seem pretty clear that Brokaw generally treated Obama a bit more coldly than McCain. More importantly, however, is that if time is so precious in these debates, then why exactly does Brokaw waste this precious time by asking a question like "Is Russia an evil empire?", and further demanding that the answer be "yes or no"? Clearly, there must have been many, many questions left on the cutting room floor that were far more integral and substantive.
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