#2

As I was watching the debate last night, I was annoyed by the bickering over time and who talked longer that was part of the "town hall" format. And apparently so were others . I understand that there have to be constraints to make the debate fair and relatively civil. What got to me is the candidates constantly wanted to respond, had things to say as rebuttal or clarification and the format was not conducive to that. Everytime Brokaw had to intervene I felt like there was something I was missing that I wanted to or needed to hear. John Dickerson had this to say about it on Slate :

Town halls are supposed to be freewheeling and probing. This format was dull, and the constant ankle-biting between the candidates compounded the problem.

Most coverage agrees that neither shined, and while Obama seems to have edged out McCain, there was no clear winner.