Channeling Al Gore, and other debate thoughts

Just some thoughts from tonight's "first" debate:

• The debate was taped in the same studio they tape It's Academic in. Trust me, that is a tiny studio. I'm amazed that they could fit all of those egos (Mikulski, Jim Smith, Jim Robey et al.) in that diminutive peanut gallery.
  
  
• Whoever thought the debate should be taped should be fired. There was no need for this to take two-and-a-half days to air. Let's not do this again.
  
  
• Martin O'Malley, while still doing his Bill Clinton impersonation, decided to channel Al Gore from the 2000 debates, and we all know where that got him.
  
  
• The Governor did rather well considering it was two-on-one. Denise Koch was an absolutely dreadful choice as a moderator. Her body language was certainly tilted towards O'Malley. Go back and look at the tape; she was always open, engaging with O'Malley, while she was cold and distant from the Governor. Koch also went out of her way to cut off the Governor and try to change the subject while he was in the middle of a point, particularly in cases where he was about to whack O'Malley for saying something nonsensical.
  
  
• During a lot of the debate, O'Malley's hands were visibly shaking. Take that to mean whatever you want it to mean.
  
  
• The closing statements were absolutely surreal. O'Malley kinda talked in distant platitudes about doing x, y, and z with his ten point plan. The Governor looked directly into the camera, listed his accomplishments, and asked the people for their vote, something O'Malley did not do. That is important.

All in all, this debate was actually a little more intense than the second one. I didn't think O'Malley could be any more on the defensive than he was during the debate aired Saturday night, but I was proven wrong.

I hope that all of the undecideds saw these two debates. Nothing else could further differentiate the Governor as a leader from somebody who is anything but.