The winner: that one

Oddest moment of the night — and there wasn't much else to make it memorable — was McCain calling Obama "that One." He did it in the oo-arrgh pantomime-pirate style he uses when he wishes to play to the gallery. But the gallery weren't rising to it, which left the comment just haning out there. "It's the way you talk about an annoying child, if you don't much care for children" says Hilzoy. It was weird.

"What the debate proved, I think, is that Obama is becoming more comfortable with the idea of himself as president of the United States, while McCain is becoming ever more crotchety at the prospect of defeat." — John Ludis