Cognitive dissonance, anyone?

[smoogatz]

Two weird things about last night's debate: first, McCain's obviously coached repetition of "Senator Obama doesn't understand," when it was evident that Obama did, indeed, have a firm and thorough grasp of the subjects at hand. Second, McCain's total duck-job when Obama brought up his plan to tax health-care benefits--that was, for me, the most important moment in the debate, and a huge loss for McCain. Third, whenever Obama challenged McCain on some point of fact or policy difference on foreign affairs, McCain would start to ramble on about the past: he seemed to be having a hard time staying focused on the here and now. That may have been a tactic, too (an attempt to demonstrate his historical knowledge, or something), but I found it off-putting.