Post-Debate Analysis From A Monkey Scientist

I normally don't care for post-debate analysis that focuses on body language, who refused to make eye contact with whom, etc. But let's see what a monkey scientist has to say about this one:

I think people really are missing the point about McCain's failure to look at Obama. McCain was afraid of Obama. It was really clear--look at how much McCain blinked in the first half hour. I study monkey behavior--low ranking monkeys don't look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that.

Overall, I think that John McCain performed better than a low-ranking monkey last night (unlike his performance at the Republican primary debates).

One thing that bothered me about both candidates is how they touted wind, solar, nuclear, etc. as alternatives to oil. The problem here is that our use of oil comes almost entirely from our auto fleet and from home heating - NOT from power plants that supply electricity (only 1.6% of our electricity generation comes from oil). While all those other things are great, electric cars and efficiency standards actually address the issue more directly.

Also, Obama's plan is better than McCain's plan on this issue (see here for more).