Dripping with condescension

I lost track of how many times John McCain said, "Senator Obama just doesn't understand." But not once did McCain prove it, and indeed Barack Obama proved it wrong time after time after time.

Pure condescension from John McCain. Very unpresidential and a losing debating strategy (or tactic, if you will). Unless you can prove it, which McCain couldn't do. Just saying it doesn't cut it.

A president doesn't need to be 72 years old, nor have spent 27 years in the Senate, as "Miss Congeniality" or otherwise. That constant claim, "Obama just doesn't understand," will be the theme of the imminent deconstruction of tonight's debate.

Because it's false and because McCain had little else to offer in the face of Obama's obvious, thoughtful grasp of foreign policy from the broad strokes to the specifics.

That claim and McCain's consistent misrepresentation of Obama's views. Meanwhile Obama was the antithesis of condescending. He was gracious, polite, and firm. Statesmanlike. McCain had to "win" tonight's debate. He didn't even come close to a "draw."

The Republican spin will be mighty entertaining. And desperate.

As an aside, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a clown. He's a convenient neocon demon, but he's a clown. Anybody who believes he would commit national suicide by dropping a bomb on Israel needs their head examined. And threatening to bomb Iran in the meantime, which both McCain and his running mate have done, is idiotic.

That is precisely the response that delights Ahmadinejad. He's a performer and a provocateur, but he's nobody's fool.