Did you watch the “last” debate last night?  I did.  Did you listen in to the “experts” who dissected the words and appearance of the two principals afterwards?  I did.  What did you find out that you didn’t know before this “last” debate?

I heard nothing new.  I saw nothing new.  The deliveries were remarkably gentle and polite.  I heard some expert remark that McCain looked angry and perkier than he had before.  His ratings are pretty low and this performance did not change much.  Obama was his professorial best, explaining patiently over and over what he had explained before – nothing new here.  He didn’t show a bit of anger although he was exasperated for having to explain to this student of his that he had said all this before and couldn’t understand why the student couldn’t understand.  Both were gentlemanly and excused themselves for interjecting corrections and then used the time to go off on another explanation of what was explained before.

I think I am having a post-debate depression.  I think that Obama is the better choice but there was no electricity in his performance.  He was carefully selective in his choice of words and none of them sparked anything more than a coded reference by McCain with something like “There you go again.”

The dirty pool was there again and that was really depressing.  Despite bringing up the negativism, each camp accused the other of saying bad things about the other.  They do know and should have known that this is what such campaigns do.  They savage the other side and make statements that must be answered and take valuable time to correct the impression the other side raised.  I think that the Obama team did a good job of damage control but McCain and his V.P. selection were not controlled and continued to make the same accusations that had been corrected every time they were raised.

Where were the good old debates where the fur flied?  The claws were sheathed and the smiles pasted on (particularly by McCain) and the back and forth with campaign rhetoric continued as though this was not the last opportunity for the opponents to sit on the same platform and answered tough questions.  They did a lot of answering but the tough questions were twisted back to the campaign rhetoric.

I confess to suffering a Post-Campaign Depression.  I wanted something different but got the same old game played during precious reading time.