The afternoon after, my abiding impression remains that Obama won the debate. He won it with clarity, self-possession, and generosity ("I agree with John"). He won it by not gaffing. (Given how important gaffes have become in our precious national discourse, isn't it about time we got a verb out of the deal?) And not least, he won it by looking friendly--the kind of guy (you might say) whom you can have a beer with and who, when he disagrees with you, still looks you in the eye.

I blogged last night about McCain's weird habit of staring sedulously straight ahead, away from Obama looking at him--McCain with jaw clenched, moreover--and am delighted to see how many others noticed the same thing. On MSNBC, as Josh picked up, Eugene Robinson made the valuable observation that McCain treated his rivals the same way in the Republican primary debates--it must have to do with a propensity to demonize his opponents. Given how many opportunities McCain had to look Obama in the eye, it's not only remarkable how few he took up, it's remarkable that professional observers wouldn't notice.

But not everybody noticed. I've just read all seven debate comments on the National Review website. None of the seven noticed.

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Dennis Myers of the Reno News and Review makes this astute observation about one more item in John McCain's padded resume, wherein repetition often substitutes for evidence:

During tonight's debate John McCain said, "I know the veterans. I know them well. And I know that they know that I'll take care of them. And I've been proud of their support and their recognition of my service to the veterans. And I love them. And I'll take care of them. And they know that I'll take care of them."

McCain has made this argument that he has a special relationship with veterans before. In July, he had this to say to a veteran who was critical of his record: "My friend, all I can say is I don't know what you're pointing to, but I've received every award from every major veterans' organization in America....The reason why I have a perfect voting record from organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and all the other veterans' service organizations is because of my support of them." It turned out that the VFW and the Legion do not have congressional vote rankings.

There are, however, other veteran organizations that do have such rankings. And if veterans have the special relationship with McCain that he describes, their organizations seem unaware of it.

In 2006, Disabled American Veterans gave McCain a 20 percent rating.
In 2006, Disabled American Veterans gave Obama an 80 percent rating.

In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a grade of D.
In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator Obama a grade of B-plus.

Here's what Candy Crowley blogged a while ago:

OXFORD, Mississippi (CNN) -- I think Jim Lehrer gave up trying to get them to talk to each other. It's even weirder in the hall -- they are no more than 8 feet apart from each other and they speak to Lehrer only. But A+ for the effort.

And CNN's own photo shows Obama looking at McCain while McCain stares straight ahead.

McCain: "I don't think Senator Obama understands...."

"I have a record. I have a record."

"I will wear his bracelet with honor."

"We don't want defeat."

Obama: "Are we making good judgments?"

McCain: I've been around.

McCain just said that.

And the consequences of this war? Can any rational person claim that the war has produced anything but increased Iranian influence? Are they not close to nuclear weapons? Are they not riding high via Hamas and Hezbollah? Are they not cocky?

This man is supposed to be knowledgeable about the world?

It's 30 minutes into the debate and I haven't seen McCain look at Obama once. Obama addresses McCain. While McCain speaks, he watches him. He acknowledges his opponent's existence. His manner reflects his nature--he doesn't talk about reciprocity, he exhibits it. McCain refuses to reciprocate. To him, his opponent is a nonentity. Call it fear, call it contempt, call it smugness, call it anxiety--I'm not sure what to call it. But for sure it's downright peculiar.

In the light of John McCain's Congressional deal-sabotage antics, his fake campaign suspension, his stream of transparent mendacity, the not-so-pretty Sarah Palin show, his long ride on the No Talk Express, etc. etc., his national esteem is tanking, and so are his poll numbers. In the battle for minds, he's lost George Will, leaving him to content himself with David Brooks' vote of confidence, based on Brooks' conviction that in McCain's glory days he looked into the man's eyes and contacted his soul--this from the man who for years had the same confidence that he knew the moral truth, the inner surge, in the mind of George W. Bush.

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Jonathan Chait has a worthwhile piece up at TNR on McCain's pattern of lying. Usefully, he lays out abundant examples. He argues that McCain is arousing his base--in both senses--and therefore doesn't care a hoot when his lies are exposed by those googoo filters, The Media. Finally, Chait argues that McCain must think it's honorable to lie because his great cause is himself, his higher destiny--so anything goes.

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Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to the Senate Banking Committee, as shown on the NewsHour tonight:

I'm angered by the things that got us here....It may make you angry, it makes me angry. When you ask about the taxpayers being on the hook, guess what? They're already on the hook. They got put on the hook by the system we have, the system we all let happen, the system that Congress, the administration, future administrations, let exist....

Let's roll that back again: "that Congress, the administration, future administrations let exist."

I thought I'd heard a lot of ingenious buckpassing from these people, but this one about takes the cake, don't you think?

Journalists have a curious term for newsworthiness: "a story." For example, "Yankee Stadium Shuts Down"--that's "a story." John McCain is about to break a 41-day streak--that's how long he's gone without talking to a national reporter. Streak, hell: He's running a drought of Noah proportions. Why hasn't the drought been "a story"? On the dog-bites-man principle that McCain avoids the press every day, so nothing is new?

According to Sam Stein at HuffPost, a reporter shouted out, "Has your bus become the No Talk Express?" McCain, Stein writes, "offered a smirk at the line but kept on walking."

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Frank Rich:

For better or worse, the candidacy of Barack Obama, a senator-come-lately, must be evaluated on his judgment, ideas and potential to lead. McCain, by contrast, has been chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, where he claims to have overseen "every part of our economy." He didn't, thank heavens, but he does have a long and relevant economic record that begins with the Keating Five scandal of 1989 and extends to this campaign, where his fiscal policies bear the fingerprints of Phil Gramm and Carly Fiorina. It's not the résumé that a presidential candidate wants to advertise as America faces its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That's why the main thrust of the McCain campaign has been to cover up his history of economic malpractice.

There's more--read the whole Rich piece--but Sunday morning being a sleepy time, let's sum up. McCain lies, obfuscates, preens, covers up, distracts, diverts, flies high, defends deregulation, and the major media have gobbled it up. For years.

If the media are to earn a stitch of authority--if they are to deserve any repute as diagnosticians and connectors of dots--they need to come clean. If the NYT and WP, to their everlasting credit, felt the responsibility to go public about how they became accomplices to fraudulent Saddam/WMD/al-Qaeda claim, they need to scrutinize how they covered the financial system and the politicians who smiled their way through the bubbles and thrived on its systematic depredations.

Any debate "moderator" who lets McCain off this hook--who fails to explore his career-long penchant for tycoon love--is derelict in his or her duty. Any "news" broadcast that fails to look open-eyed at his record is bankrupt.

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