[MRM]

I'm listening to a rebroadcast of the debate at my desk today. I had never listened to the debates because they hurt my ears but it was on so I started listening. I had heard that Obama doesn't debate well and I had heard that Clinton took a very safe route on the debates, so I was curious to see how it really went.

I was surprised to hear Obama isn't as smooth in debate as he is on the stump. He gets his point across but he pauses and talks in a herky-jerky manner. It's kind of annoying and is completely different than how he is on the stump. In the end, though, I do think he got the better of Clinton.

Clinton did play it safe, but she really does come across as unpeasant. She tried to pin a plagerism tag on Obama for borrowing speaches from some politician who supports Obama and had used the same speaches before. Obama responded by saying it was Washington-crazy to suggest he plagerized something when his buddy thought up the line, tried it out, and when it worked gave him the line and told him to use it. He got a big laugh and Clinton looked bad. But she didn't stop and in her response kept at him and called him Barak. I think calling your oponent by first name is a bit unprofessional in a late presidential debate.

Overall I wasn't that impressed with either. I thought Obama got the better of the exchanges because Clinton really did come off as shrill. She talked down the moderators a couple of times.