Watch the Presidential Debate With Me

I started out calling him Mitt. About half-way through, it began to feel disrespectful.  You'll see when I changed; I went back and made the corrections.

It was a sense of the importance of the office being discussed.  I may have attitude, but I'd like to be polite.
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Awwwwww.... they're just regular guys.  Mitt Governor Romney gently teased the President about the romantic setting in which he found himself on his 20th wedding anniversary.

It was adorable.

Then, again, I've never doubted that Mitt  Governor Romney loved his wife, nor that he was anything but an exemplary husband. It felt scripted. I felt co-opted because, for a moment, I thought it was real.
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Jim Lehrer mentioned that they were "way over the fifteen minutes we allotted to this topic" but no one seemed to care.

At least they could agree on something.
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Mitt Governor Romney is bickering over who gets the last words. He seems petty.  The President is long-winded.  He's not Bill Clinton.
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MittGovernor Romney 's making economic sense to TBG, so I have to believe that there is some merit to what he says.  He's so shrill, though, I'm having a hard time following the logic. I assume I'm paying at least as much attention as anyone else and I'm lost.

It's into preaching to the choir, I think, 40 minutes into it.  Right now, I'm  feeling the emotion, the buzz words... kids... help... growth... tax breaks... Exxon/Mobil... small companies (from each of them.... though the definition of small seems somewhat fungible)...

I'm not sure I'm hearing any facts or anything new and I'm a bit peeved.
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I love when the President invokes his grandmother.  Fiercely independent is what he always calls her; it's what I want my kids to say about me.
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It's very nice that both of them told seniors on Medicare and Social Security that neither I nor my opponent want to change anything for current recipients.  MittGovernor Romney told them they didn't need to listen any more.

At this point, a potty break is not a bad idea.
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Obamacare... I love that he's embracing the name. Mr. Romney used it with respect and Mr. Obama brushed him off.  He's comfortable with it, and so am I.  Without it, I wonder if I'd have health insurance right now,
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Romney's right about Medicare - if it were a business.  It's not.  It's health care. One can live without a General Motors automobile, though the Romney's might have noticed.  One cannot live without health care.

I can live in a nation which doesn't care if its citizens have transportation.  I cannot live in one which doesn't care if its citizens have health care.
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No, there is no one out there who thinks that the problems we had in 2008 was because there was too much regulation.
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I got one of those rebate checks the President talked about.  Blue Cross/Blue Shield wasn't happy about it, but I deposited the money with a big smile on my face.
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I'm finding the President's long-winded-ness weirdly mind-numbing. Mr. Romney sounds rehearsed and vaguely Stepford-wife-ish.  As the debate winds down the rhetoric winds up. State by state... opportunities... create jobs.... Life... cut taxes ... 
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Good grammar makes me smile.  Mr. Obama's reference to the tax breaks Gov. Romney offers to guys like me and him is such a refreshing change from the he's and the I's which usually assault my tender ears.

Damn, I really didn't hear him say me and the Republicans, did I?  I usually ask the speaker Are the Republicans mean? to gently correct the mistake, but in this case the answer would be yes so I just have to say that the better construction would be the Republicans and me.  
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I think Mr. Romney did very well.  I think Mr. Obama was kind of boring.  I wonder if something else is going on tonight.  As Tom Brokaw mused, Mr. Romney has been on the campaign stump while the President has been busy being President.

There are two more of these debates and that, in and of itself, is a good thing.  This evening was substantive, even if David Gregory thinks he's heard it all before.  There are clear differences between the men and this was an adult presentation of the surface.  Perhaps we should have one question whose nuances could be explored for a full ninety minutes; in two minutes it's hard to get beyond sloganeering.  

Victory in debating is nice if you are in Junior Statesmen or the United Nations General Assembly.  As the deciding factor in a Presidential election..... not so much.

Still, it's pretty cool to live in a country where things like this can happen.