Second Presidential Debate

Visually, the candidates presented an interesting scenario. Obama, his lanky limbs casually and confidently splayed out from his tall debatin' chair, head cocked and ready to blare a pair of big, vigilant eyes or an assured smirk, looked the part of a watchful, sarcastic eagle.
McCain, on the other hand, had the stiffly eager movements of a friendly penguin using every waddle and woefully limited flipper movement possible to try, with the utmost sincerity, and sell you something.

Eagle vs. Penguin: who wins? The Eagle possesses obvious advantages of strength, speed, and savvy: his screeching triumph is all but assured when the penguin has no hope but to burrow underwater or hide amongst hundreds of his indistinguishable fellows.
But unfortunately for the Eagle, it's not the Law of the Arctic which decides this battle, but the viewing public, whose sympathies will rarely lie with the bird of prey prepared to rip apart the penguin's lovable tuxedo tufts like so many cheap Christmas presents.

As for the town-hall forum or "debate" itself (and please, let's not abuse our words - it has been, and will be, a long time before any pair of presidential candidates actually engage one another in a true debate), a few clear differences emerged from the malaise of side-stepped questions and litanously repeated talking points: Obama favors undefined market regulation, McCain favors undefined market de-regulation. McCain favors government buy-ups of bad mortages to immediately get at the current economic crisis (I'll see your federal deficit, Mr. Bush, and raise you...); Obama favors tax cuts (dipping further into the dictionary, "tax cuts" never mean actual reductions, but merely a restraint in levying newer taxes) for the middle class (although wealth, as he says, does not "trickle downwards", it apparently oozes from the middle?). Absorbing "sissy diplomacy" blasts from McCain, Obama maintained a dedication towards a foreign policy built on open negotiations and discussions with America's antagonists; McCain resolutely stuck to a mantra of God-Military-Intervention-and-David-Petraeus that left no room for an admission of any errors or standing problems in the prosecution of the War on Terror.

Consistent from past debates and stretching back to the Saddleback discussion, both candidates steadfastly refused to state a doctrine for America's forceful involvement in international crises (say, genocides) which don't pose immediate threats to national security. And the day when a major candidate actually criticizes the ubiquitous "average American"...well, to quote Buddy Holly, "that'll be the day."

Obama's Belle of the Ball moment:
Declaring, with clarity and intensity, "We will kill Bin Laden and crush al-Qaeda" - unexpectedly confident and winning words for a candidate whose party is used to ceding patriotism and national security across the aisle.

Lowlights: After forcefully declaring America's moral interests for intervening in cases of genocide, "If we were able to respond to a Rwanda again...we would...have to strongly consider our involvement." (to his credit, he added the feeble coda of "...and then act!"); after acknowledging the economic toll of the War in Iraq and the constraints the economic crisis would impose on America's global presence, proceeding to chide McCain for offering Ukraine and Georgia only "moral support," and insist that America offer "financial and material support" to these struggling nations.

McCain's Belle of the Ball Moment:
His forceful final words, offering up himself as a man who "knows dark times" and burns with a desire to serve America, did far more than the previous hour's trumpeting of "experience" and "records" to evince a capacity for wisdom and leadership.

Lowlights: Repetitive self-identifications as a maverick bi-partisan reformer; blind assurances in, and dubious similes illustrating, America's infinite power and capacity ("We're not a rifle shot! We're Americans!")

Discuss: Both candidates agree, "America has been the greatest force for good in the history of the world." ?