abaya

There's another thread going in Politics about the debates from Friday night, but not many women have replied to it... am wondering how many of you watched some/all of the televised debates, and what you thought about them, if so.

Iceland had a live feed direct from the debates, which began at 1am our time and went for about 88 minutes. The last 2 minutes just went to black... looks like whomever was on duty at the station tripped over a cord or something, lol. Anyway, so ktsp and I stayed up to watch, which was interesting because there was only one camera angle available at any one time (focusing on just one candidate or Jim Lehrer, the moderator, at one time)... I wanted to see the reactions of the other candidate at times, but we didn't have the option. I have heard that McCain's reactions were much stronger than Obama's, in terms of appearing impatient and annoyed, but I didn't see any of it.

Overall, what stood out the most to me was McCain's body language towards Obama throughout the debate. He never turned to look at him, never made eye contact with him, never used his name other than to accuse him (in the third person) of "not understanding" something, several times. Honestly, I felt like he strongly disliked Obama and could not even do him the common courtesy of eye contact. It's been said by many others, but I wondered how this man could sit down with foreign enemies, if he can't even stand and acknowledge the presence of a fellow senator for 90 minutes while having one of the most important exchanges of the entire campaign.

I appreciate being able to see these debates, because I think they're one of the very, very few unscripted moments that we, as voters, get to see of both candidates within a few meters of each other. There's no teleprompter, no commercials (at least, not in Iceland), no escape, basically. I like that. I wish we could have more of that, in American politics... with more parties, of course. But at least we do have this, amidst all of the other bullshit of political propaganda.

What did you all think? Do you plan to watch the other debates? Personally, I can't wait to see the VP debates, because in my opinion Sarah Palin has botched every single interview she's done (and that's not saying much--she's only had 2 meaningful interviews on national television, since McCain won't let her out of his campaign cage, otherwise).

If you didn't watch the debates, was there any reason for why you chose not to do so? I have never watched the debates before, but again, I have never cared so much about the outcome of these elections as I have this year. A lot of my political behavior has changed, as a result.

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And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran