Point about CNN debate scoring

[POAS]

I'm just now going back to rewatch the debate as shown on CNN-HD and notice that before any questions were asked, in fact as soon as they reached their podiums, Castellanos gave McCain a negative vote.

What the heck do you suppose that was about? Could he have already picked up on McCain's demeanor from the way he approached Obama to shake hands?

[RagAss]

1. I did...The impersonal entrance.

[K Gardner]

2. I turned CNN off due to the extracurricular BUSY-Ness of the screen with all the pie charts and

graphs and lines.. too distracting. But Castellanos was scoring Obama wildly high when I left, and Borger hadn't scored anyone. It was weird.

I flipped back at the very end in time to hear them say McCain won, despite MOST people scoring Obama higher.

[Tallison]

3. Opinion polls always favor the taller candidate

In fact, up until Bush-Kerry, I recall a story about taller candidates consistently winning the last 12 election cycles. I'll have to google for that story...

ETA: From Cecil's Adam's "The Straight Dope"

That caveat aside, various sources do claim that the taller candidate usually wins. For example, in Language on Vacation (1965), word and number buff Dmitri Borgmann claimed that in the 19 U.S. presidential elections between 1888 and 1960, the taller candidate won the popular vote all but once, when 6'2" Franklin Roosevelt beat 6'2-1/2" Wendell Willkie in 1940. In 1888 5'11" Grover Cleveland beat 5'6" Benjamin Harrison at the polls but was cuffed in the electoral college, and in 1896 and 1900 both candidates were the same height.

In his 1982 book Too Small, Too Tall psychologist John Gillis presents similar results: in the 21 presidential elections from 1904 to 1984, the taller candidate won 80 percent of the time. What's more, he says, in the whole history of the Republic, only two presidents--Harrison and James Madison (5'4")--were appreciably shorter than the average height in their day"

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/787/does-the-taller-candidate-always-win-the-election

[rsmith6621]

4. McCain Did Not Want To Be There

.......He wanted to be back in DC hiding behind his failed financial policy's.....The guy knows it is OVER....he picked the wrong person for the VEEP slot.....that debate has got me stocking up on popcorn to watch the train wrecked.