In the history of these debates, it's the non-verbal impressions that set the tone, rule the day. Nixon looking shifty, nervous, untrustworthy versus JFK's calm, confident demeanor.
I could not get over as I watched tonight's debate how John McCain would not look at, talk to or otherwise engage Barack Obama in their discussions.
That, I think, put the last nail in his coffin.
I'm not going to get into the content, the Pakistan gaffe, the obvious attempts by McCain to keep using the word naive when describing Obama or his insistence on shutting him down and not letting him be heard. Those were bad enough.
I'm talking about that camera angle from over McCain's right shoulder that included both candidates. Obama looked earnest, eager to talk, eager to discuss, willing to debate.
McCain looked like a cranky old man who'd been awakened from his nap and had to deal with the idiotic ideas of some young whippersnapper who had not spent 5 1/2 years in a POW camp.
The attitude will NOT attract voters.
His unwillingness to engage in a real debate based on ideas rather than buzz words and stories from stump speeches will be noted. Maybe not on a conscious level. Maybe not by the pundits. But his behavior in this debate did not do him any favors, and I wouldn't be surprised if he does a 180 for the next debate and becomes congenial John, smiling and friendly to his Senate colleague.
But either way he loses. Do that, and he looks as erratic as he's looked this week. Continue on the cold shoulder path, and he looks like the jerk we've been warned about by Republican Senators.
A good day, and a good week, for Barack Obama.