Tuesday's debate between Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama, the second of three presidential debates during this election cycle, was not as lively as I'd hoped. The town hall format was supposed to encourage discussion, but did not involve much conversation between the two candidates.

Both candidates had trouble staying within the agreed upon time limits, with Sen. Obama being especially guilty of ignoring Tom Brokaw's reminders to curtail his verbosity. The only other thing McCain and Obama had in common was their tendency to wander off during their answers to the audience questions. After thanking the questioner, an alleged undecided voter, the candidate would give a sentence or two that vaguely involved the question, and then start talking in general about the larger issue involved. It kind of defeated he purpose of having real people ask real, specific questions.

McCain was on the offense quite a bit, most likely in an effort to help his poll numbers by bringing negative attention to Obama. Gov. Palin's been doing that for a week now, but McCain didn't get quite as personal as she has been. The that one quote, as McCain pointed at Obama, is going to be as infamous as any of those that they talk about during these quadrennial events. McCain looked his age, something he probably needs to avoid, trying to stiffly move around the debate floor; the podium works much better for him, despite his belief that the town hall format is to his benefit. Obama won the battle of body language. He looked dignified and attentive as McCain spoke, while McCain repeated his pattern from the last debate of looking dismissive and uncomfortable. He seemed a bit more relaxed towards the end of the debate. His nervousness, though, led to some very awkward and unfunny jokes. When asked who he'd pick for Secretary of Treasury, he told Tom Brokaw, Not you, Tom. It was an obvious stall tactic. Obama did no better with the same question despite having some time to think about it, but he avoided the lame jokes.

The best question of the night involved prioritizing. Brokaw offered three issues: Health Care; Energy; and Entitlement Reform. He then asked each candidate to rank them in the order they would consider most important to tackle first. McCain said he could do all three at once and declined to answer the question. (This from the guy who couldn't plan for a debate and contribute to the so called bailout resolution.) Obama, on the other hand, gave a clear answer: 1) Energy; 2) Health Care; 3) Entitlement Reform. He explained his plan for each.

There were two moments in the debate where McCain did well. The first was when he mentioned that Obama said he'd not raise taxes if the economy turned bad, and then looked at him--finally-- and said, I've got some news, Sen. Obama, the news is bad. If Obama wasn't planning to cut taxes for most people, that argument would have been even more pointed, but still, it was a good jab. The second shining moment was in foreign policy. This, of course, is where McCain feels most comfortable. Even if I disagree with his arguments, he did best in here in explaining his positions and was obviously much more comfortable talking about it than the economy or domestic issues.

Obama, in defending himself from McCain's oft-repeated charge of the Democratic candidate's supposed naiveté, mixed his metaphors a bit. He said McCain liked to say that he was green behind the ears. He meant, of course, wet behind the ears or green, as in new. Green behind the ears sounds like a fungal infections.

Sen. McCain mentioned two things in the debate which he's said before and has not, during the debates, been called out on. Obama allowed McCain to say whatever he wanted, and for the most part, let it go. He did rebut some of the more serious charges, but he was mostly letting McCain swing and miss. He and Tom Brokaw chose not to challenge McCain on the claim that he knows how to catch Osama Bin Ladin. To quote:

I'll get him. I know how to get him. I'll get him no matter what and I know how to do it.

If McCain knows how, why is he not sharing this information with the Bush administration or the military personnel in Afghanistan? Some of the political pundits (the ones with an admittedly liberal slant) have asked this very same question. Keith Olbermann has gone so far to suggest that if McCain knows how and chooses not to share it, he is committing a crime.

Unbelievable statement number to came while discussing social security, and how to fix it.

Look -- look, it's not that hard to fix Social Security, Tom. It's just... tough decisions. I want to get to Medicare in a second. Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We've got to sit down together across the table.

I ask again, if it's so easy, why has it not been done? The problem with Social Security has been looming for years. During those years, both the Republicans and the Democrats have controlled Congress. Both Republicans and Democrats have controlled the White House. If it's so easy, why has neither party fixed it? If it's so easy, why didn't McCain tell us what needs to be done?

Finally, McCain said something that blew everyone out of the water: the government should buy up all of the bad mortgages which have derailed the economy.

So this rescue package means that we will stabilize markets, we will shore up these institutions. But it's not enough. That's why we're going to have to go out into the housing market and we're going to have to buy up these bad loans and we're going to have to stabilize home values...

What? The conservative viewers must have cringed, while any socialist watching would have clapped for joy. Didn't that huge bailout give money to the companies who owned those bad mortgages so that they can recover from them? Why does the government need to buy them up? McCain wants to cut spending, so where's he getting money to buy up all those mortgages. It was a definite what the heck!? moment.

McCain scored no knock-out blow, despite his attempts to do so. Obama scored no knock-out blow because he didn't try to. He has the lead in the polls and is content to do nothing that might negatively effect his edge. This resulted in a rather boring debate, where McCain looked desperate and Obama, slightly regal.