McCain's smiles aren't real, they're fake. Watch his eyes when he smiles--they stay angry. The man's been given to rage since elementary school--by his own account. So when he smiles, it doesn't comes across as real, it comes across as disturbing, a grimace, the sign of a zombie ready to bite. Don't think voters will be unswayed by body language--they've already registered a lot of annoyance at his refusal to look at Obama. each time he smiles, more voters will be turned off. the legendary McCain charm is rooted in contempt and sarcasm, which probably did do well at cocktail parties where people experienced him while slightly buzzed.

She did about as well as one could expect because of the format. Her repetitions, sound bites, stale talking points, distortions, shaky syntax and outright lies didn't come off as too offensive because there was no follow-up. Had she been pressed by the moderator or Biden to give examples or explain herself, we would have seen the same result of the Katie Couric interview. As it is, showing that one can do some fancy dancing and cram half-understood concepts isn't showing you can be vice president of even the PTA.

Joan:

I didn't think Biden looked angry, but more waiting to pounce. But I did see Palin get angry and that cutesy-poo carapace crack early on. Can't recall what Biden said to throw her, but her eyes narrowed, her face got set and her syntax wobbled.

To me, the strangest moment of the debate was her comment about his wife who's a teacher: "Her reward is in heaven." Say what? That's a common phrase to describe someone who doesn't get what the deserve here, who suffers, who has a life of unrelieved toil--or something like that. She was saying, whether she meant it or not, that Biden's wife has no satisfaction at all in her work life. That's a bold, peculiar claim to make for someone who has teachers in the family.

Watch him wobble across the stage, hunched over, breathing hard. I'm struck by how fake the "my friends" sounds, and how many times he corrects himself, and how some people seem alarmed when he gets too close--their eyes narrow. Is it that he looks really bad close up? Something we can't see at home?

I'd heard about it for years and when I saw it a few years ago in some version, I was intrigued but not overwhelmed or seduced. It seemed slow, only intermittently interesting, and the lead was too dispassionate. Watching the film felt like filling in a gap on a reading list for a course: I'm glad I saw it, but nothing about it made me think, "Oh, if only they restore this!"

It's just another glorious example of a campaign in meltdown and a candidate who can't put a foot right when she steps out of the GOP wingnut magic circle. She asked, "How dare they boo" her daughter? How dare she expose her daughter to seeing her mother humiliated like that? Did she think she would be showered with rose petals and everyone would bow down and worship her? She has no self-awareness at all.

Why couldn't you have a psychologist using the affect theory of Silvan Tomkins--which has been verified cross-culturally by Paul Ekman--to analyze video of Obama and McCain to reveal their basic affects? We'd learn a lot more than this drivel.

Anyone watching saw a real difference in the candidates' tone, affect and body language. You'd miss all that reading excerpts or even a transcript.

Before he got serious, McCain was sarcastic, whereas before he got serious, Obama was jovial. McCain's primary affects are negative; Obama's positive. That's partly what people respond to.

McCain has more than once said that Palin is "an expert in autism." Is one of her children autistic and nobody's discussed that in public--or is he mistaking Down's Syndrome with autism? And why isn't the media catching another McCain Moment if that's the case?

I watched that rant live and Matthews let her have enough rope to hang herself with, but all he did was draw her out more and more. He never truly challenged anything she said, so someone coming fresh to these phony charges about Ayres et al. might suspect there was some truth there.

Michelle Bachmann should strap on her riot gear and head right to Missouri which is obviously not just anti-American but Communist and probably terrorist as well. That shows you how low our country has sunk: evil lurks even in the heartland!

Is that Cindy McCain?

She looks really troubled and even disgusted when he screws up his lines and flails to get back to his talking point.

This NYT article demonstrates that she's an elitist since she's wearing similar styles of clothing post- makeover as she wore pre-makeover, only now they're more expensive:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/us/politics/23style.html

Of course McCain's anger problem has roots in his family and predates his being a POW. By his own admission, as a child he'd get so angry he'd pass out. He's well known to have been unpopular and nasty as a student later on. But being helpless, trapped, and humiliated for those years in Vietnam has certainly made his anger management shakier, as GOP colleagues have testified.