2012 Presidential Debate #1

There are probably hundreds of analyses of today's presidential debate online (click here), so I won't bore you with a post about the contrasting views of insurance rates or tax codes.  Instead, I will share some much less substantial observations.

First, I thought it was hilarious when the moderator tried to stop Obama and Romney when they talked way over their time limits.  When he tried to stop Obama, Obama gave him a look that said, "I'm the President of the United States of America.  I will determine when I'm done talking."  However, the moderator did a good job overall, not being too picky.

When the camera angles were right, you could see each of them writing notes.  I could imagine both of them just drawing pictures of monsters eating hopeless townspeople like a fifth grader bored in math class.

I can understand the difficulty of a debate situation, especially one so highly televised, but it seemed like they merely bounced between pre-prepared points.  For example, Obama would say point A and point B.  Next Romney would respond by denying point B with counterpoint C, then adding point D.  Obama would retort point C by restating point B, then react to D by repeating A, while also slipping in point E.  Romney would then challenge point E by repeating point D, and add point C for extra emphasis.  They just jumped between their special points, repeating them unnecessarily at tines, simply disregarding the others' claims, which I thought was thoroughly entertaining.  For the next debate, I shall make some popcorn.

A sample progression of a topic