A couple things caught my eye during the debate.  McCain's body language was remarkable.  Shortly into the debate, I realized that he just wouldn't look at Obama.  This debate format was a hybrid between an open town hall style meeting and the old, ridiculous "you have 60 seconds to respond, 30 seconds to rebut" debates of past campaigns.  This should have played better to McCain's alleged strength, but last night he simply looked rigid, tense, and pissed.  He didn't squeeze out a single milli-second of humor.

My "whoa" moment came early, and I can't even remember the topic.  McCain was speaking and Obama forcefully cut him off, and McCain let Obama get away with it!  It was an Alpha Dog moment.  McCain dropped his head, Obama charged on rebutting McCain.  That immediately established Obama as an equal player on the stage. 

I was a bit surprised by CNN's flash poll result which gave Obama a large victory.  I think McCain's surreal campaign suspension / save the day in DC stunt and Palin's Couric interview may have set the foundation for some of the immediate high scores for Obama.  The independents have been marinating in McCain / Palin juice all week.  Obama didn't need to prove himself as presidential during the debate because he's the only candidate who looked presidential last week. 

Finally, the debate format was a tremendous improvement. Kudos to Jim Lehrer.  Candidates had time to actually get into some depth.  I would have liked to have seen more interplay between the two candidates, but McCain's unexpected rigidity prevented that.  Unfortunately, (and likely wisely) McCain's camp negotiated to keep the VP debate as the old style where candidates don't address each other.  Imagine Palin and Biden speaking in this format!