One blogger's take on the debate

From Turkana at The Left Coaster:

John McCain came across as an angry old crank who lived some of the past quarter century's history, and wants to build on it. He was wrapped too tight. Glaring. Almost cackling. Barack Obama came across as calm and poised, if occasionally frustrated by McCain's lies, but most importantly, he came across as a man who wants to dramatically change our approach to foreign policy.

Barack Obama was almost too nice, refusing to call McCain's stunt about Obama not understanding things by saying, flat out- "John, no matter how many times you repeat your tired talking point about my not understanding issues, the simple fact remains that you didn't understand that invading a country that had nothing to do with September 11 would prevent us from catching those who did have something to do with it; you didn't understand that a war against a nation that had nothing to do with international terrorism would create a front in the war on terror that previously didn't exist; you didn't understand that invading a country that had nothing to do with September 11 would devastate that country, our military, our economy, and our international standing. John, you've been in politics a long, long time. You may have understood the world of the 20th Century, but you clearly don't understand the world of the 21st Century." Obama's best moment was when he attacked McCain on Iraq, and he should have repeated the attack every time McCain repeated his talking point about Obama being green.

The question for the night: don't both candidates' running mates usually make themselves available to the media for post-debate spin?

CNN snap poll: Obama won the debate by a 51-38 margin, won the debate on Iraq by a small margin, and won the debate on the economy by a huge margin. A very good night for Obama. . . .

(Video from Talk Left)