Last night I watched parts of the debate, while also following along with Bob Barr who was responding to the debate questions as well thanks to Reason, seeing as how he was not invited to participate with McCain and Obama, even though a majority of Americans would have liked to see it.  It's too bad those watching the debates didn't get an opportunity to either, because he would have really shaken things up.

Some brief thoughts.  Neither candidate seems capable of reducing spending... at all.  In fact Lehrer specifically asked what they would cut, and all they could talk about was more things they'd spend on.  We're talking about spending potentially a trillion dollars, and both candidates are incapable of realizing what that would do to our national debt, and our ability to pay for other things.  It's laughable really.

At one point McCain talked about a spending freeze, but then added so many caveats that it was meaningless.  He would freeze spending, but not on military spending, veteran's benefits, or entitlements.  Well guess what John, that's about 80% of the budget right there.  Everybody goes after ear marks and "administrative costs", but the reality is... that's a pittance of the budget.  That's like saying that if I were to lose my job right now, I'd be able to get through it solely by not going to Starbucks in the morning any more.

Some other things that caught my ear from Obama was him talking about how we're on a "spending orgy".  Look Barack... as a general rule of thumb, its probably not a good idea to ever use the word orgy in any context.  Barack also mentioned the need to rebuild the Georgian economy.  Are you out of your God damn mind?!  Ours is looking to go in the tank because of poor fiscal policies that your party demanded, and now you want to give a billion dollars to save someone else's economy?  How about ours first!  Seriously... they are both absolutely clueless.

When they did start talking about foreign policy... well... then it was just a he said - he said battle.  They both pulled out tired quotes and party line bullshit about who declared what and when about Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, etc.  Apparently I'm not the only one though who noticed that Obama sounds like a pretentious ass when he pronounces Pakistan and Taliban.

Over all, I think it was a close debate but Obama won it.  I say that not because I thought he made better points than McCain.  They were both wrong on too much to count.  Obama just did a better job at explaining his positions to undecided voters.  I think too many of McCain's points were wrapped up in one liners, and party rhetoric.  That's great if you already support McCain... but he shouldn't be going after party hardliners.  Picking Palin already got the party in line.  Now he needs to go after the undecided voters.

Obama was able to answer enough of McCain's attacks with good explanations that weren't really refuted well by McCain.  Whether any of it was accurate doesn't matter.  He sounded more right.  From now until the next debate, both parties are going to parse, spin, and YouTube the hell out of what the other said, trying to explain how the other guy lied, or was wrong, or misquoted, etc.  The majority of people who were undecided, who watched that debate, will never see any of that.  And that's why Obama won it.