The format was less conducive to productive give and take than the first debate.  McCain was smart to keep the character assassinations under wraps.  He had more than a few effective jabs at Obama, but more often than not Obama's comebacks laid them firmly to rest.  McCain really looked petulant whenever he went out of his way to rag Obama at the expense of answering a question, and what struck me several times was that McCain's demeanor kept switching back and forth between that of a tough guy and that of a spoiled child.  And his constant pacing and the sheer unpredictability of his movements struck me as accurately reflecting his character.  At his best McCain was commanding in a good way.  If only he could be so consistently, but he can't,not that I've ever seen -- he's always erratic whenever you watch over any significant length of time.  Not stable or even-keeled.

Obama passed up numerous opportunities to make pointed turnabouts on McCain.  But he was very steady, sensible, authoritative, calm, articulate, the very definition of "even-keeled".  I was really struck by the question from the retired Navy petty officer -- Obama's answer was distinctly better than McCain's, and you could see by the ex-Navyman's reactions that he thought so too.  That was the very moment that Obama won the debate.