Look at Slate.com’s headline and the accompanying picture:

I watched the debate by myself, so I had a field day this morning reading what people’s reactions were. Apparently it was a snoozer and McCain came across like an old man, stiff in the limbs and awkward, while Obama was graceful and fluid, according to media reports. So McCains’s shorter and has permanent physical limitations after being tortured as a POW… I thought the commentary was kind of unfair, at least about his physical awkwardness. But doesn’t mean they weren’t funny

What made me laugh out loud were apparently many people’s observations about McCain’s pacing around in the background while Obama was talking (which I didn’t notice myself).

For shitz & giggles:
John Dickerson: While Obama talked, McCain took an occasional walkabout. This was disconcerting. It looked like he was getting up to get a beer.

Andrew Sullivan: 9.51 pm. Why is McCain wandering around the stage while Obama is talking? It’s weird. He looks like an old man pacing aimlessly. And he doesn’t look at Obama while Obama talks the way Obama looks at him when McCain talks. This is not that important but I don’t think it helps McCain.

Harry Browne: McCain allegedly prospers with this sort of “informality”, but he was awkward here. One big reason, believe it or not, was the height of the stools they were given to sit on. The lanky Obama could comfortably stretch his legs to the floor. McCain couldn’t. So he mostly stood or leaned awkwardly, then started pacing while Obama was speaking.

Gerard Baker: Probably the only moment of real surprise in the whole 90 minutes came when Senator McCain, explaining how he and his opponent had voted differently on an energy bill, referred to Senator Obama as “that one”. It produced a slight wince of disapproving dismay in the media watching hall, the sort of response you might evince when someone gently belches at a dinner party.

Funny how, substantively, McCain was informed and clearly experienced (perhaps too much for his own good), but he sort of ‘lost’ the debate. And yet his running mate was deemed rather impressive just for standing on stage and spewing air bubbles of nothing during her VP debate.