Anya and I had the opportunity to both listen to and watch the first presidential debate. We listened to it as we drove to Dallas and watched it when we got into town. We're political nerds, what can we say?

While it wasn't quite Nixon/Kennedy, we did notice that our perceptions of who "won" depended on whether we listened to it or watched it.

McCain sounded really strong on the radio. He had a command presence. He was knowledgeable. He certainly knows his stuff. And on the radio, we felt that Obama sounded defensive and like he was searching for answers. Obama has a tendency (as a lot of smart people do) of taking pauses in his sentences. On the radio, this came off as him reaching for answers. On television, it came off as him processing.

Overall, I think they tied. I don't really buy into the thinking that someone can win a debate via a tie, unless it's a primary debate when there are anywhere from 2 to 12 people debating. Then special rules can be made. But the only line of thinking that I can buy into that says the tie favors Obama was in that there was no "game changer." And since he's up in the polls, a tie keeps things as they are.

But I don't think that it's a good game to play that says that Obama won because it was McCain's home turf. Because I wouldn't feel like a tie should benefit McCain in the economics debate. A tie's a tie.

When watching the debate, I think it was close but Obama did slightly better. When listening, I thought it was close, but McCain did slightly better. So yeah, a tie.

What I liked most about the debate was that there were some major fundamental differences between the candidate. McCain's "don't talk to anyone vs Obama's talk with everyone. McCain's surge vs Obama's we shouldn't have been there in the first place. McCain's wristband vs Obama's wristband.

I really was glad to see that Obama appeared presidential and in his element. He's really come a long way since his early debates in the primaries. You can make another tick mark in the column that says that the long primary season was overall a good thing for Obama.

Good debate, can't wait for the others.

- Matt