Thoughts on the First Presidential Debate in HD

I got a chance to watch the presidential debate last night and engage in some of the online live-blogging that was happening from a number of sources, as much as I could while watching. I was listening and reading what people were saying on Election.Twitter, what my internet marketing professor thought, what two bloggers from The Atlantic were live-blogging, and also trying to think about the persuasive techniques.


People were asked to leave their comments on the debate and Andrew Sullivan chose this comment that a reader left. Why? It wasn't about policies or who was a better speaker. It was based on the body language of both candidates. Prior to reading this today, I commented that I would have felt differently about the debate if I had listened to it on the radio. I would have found McCain to be more sure of world events, even if he digressed, "By the way, I went there once..." as he did a number of times. Watching the event and seeing how McCain reacted while Obama was speaking - laughing out loud, not looking at him when Obama was looking at him. That made me feel that, even though John McCain was acting rude and very arrogant. So, I felt that this post was really saying something about how watching the debate on television links us to the limbic part of the brain in a way that wouldn't reach us if it were only broadcast on the radio.

Also, it was the first presidential debate ever televised in "High-def." What I thought was funny was that in the live-blogging from Marc Ambinder - also of the Atlantic - said, "9:10 McCain's tie is bleeding all over my TV."