It was about 10:30pm here in Oxford, OH when the second presidential debate finished up and I rejoiced by emphatically hitting the off button on my remote. Because that's what I wanted to do periodically throughout the debate. I wanted to turn the TV off so that the urge I had to throw my TV to the floor while roaring like the Incredible Hulk on crack would go away. Despite the urge, I did not throw my TV to the floor, so here's a description of my many moods throughout the debate.

In the beginning I was curious. This is the first presidential election I have followed closely, so naturally this is the first town hall debate I've covered. I was curious to see how it would all go down. Before it got started, I had heard complaints from political analysts about the strict rules the commission had put in place regarding the candidates and how close they were allowed to get to the people and how much they were able to talk back and forth with them - the commission didn't want any talking back and forth between candidate and voter. God forbid we have a president that gets into a conversation with a voter. Oh no! We wouldn't want a voter to press the candidate for a clear cut answer on an issue. No, we'd rather hear some long, drawn out explanation where the answer gets hidden amongst all the bullshit (both sides do this constantly). But despite my objections to the format, the debate started at 9pm ET as planned.

Even if the people asking the questions were somewhat restricted in their dialog with the candidates, I still smiled at the notion that regular people that are currently taking it through the back entrance from our stumbling economy are getting a chance to ask the questions. This doesn't happen too often in other countries, so we Americans still have that to be proud of. But as the debate got going, that anger I mentioned earlier started to boil.

Once again we were hearing the same vague answers about why Obama is going to be there for the middle class. But wait, McCain had proof that Obama is a partisan Democratic, not willing to break from his party and will raise taxes on the innocent middle class. And so the back and forth began.

If debates are going to take over prime time television (as the vice presidential debate took over my beloved The Office!) then they need to be held to the same standard. NO REPEATS IN THE FALL! Save that crap for the summer when nobody is watching.

This is why the voters at the town hall meeting should have had the opportunity for a follow up. Because by the time either candidate got done answering a question, their answer wasn't always clear. If they weren't spending time answering a previous question to refute their opponents claim, then they were trying to nit pick through their opponents history, taking decisions out of context in order to hurt them politically. If the voter could follow up, then it would assure the candidate that they'd have time to give their long, political answers and the voter could follow up asking for a clearer, more concise answer. Here's an imaginary example.

Voter: How will you fix the economy?

Politician: I will do this (insert plan of action) and then do this (insert plan of stabilization) to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Look how easy that was! There's no need to bring up what's wrong with the other candidate. They're in politics, we know something is wrong with them. Americans are smart people, they'll figure out what's wrong with a candidate or what doesn't add up on their own. The Obama campaign has said they will not throw the first punch, but they will throw the last. Well what constitutes a punch? I, as a voter, do not need to hear for the billionth time how similar John McCain is to President Bush. You'd think they were long lost twin brothers after listening to how many time he gets compared to Bush.

(That would make for a passable sitcom, though. Take the format of Sister, Sister and change it to Brother, Brother staring John McCain and George W. Bush. Imagine all the hilarious hi-jinx they'd get themselves into!)

Despite what probably seems like an immense hatred of tonight's debate, there were a couple of moment's that stuck out at me.

1.) Obama's 10 year plan. I've been waiting for someone to say this and even make the comparison to JFK's 10 year plan. The idea first got put in my head by Thomas Friedman's Green Revolution, so kudos to him.

In 1961, President Kennedy stood in front of Congress and proclaimed that within the next decade, the United States would put a man on the moon. When President Kennedy laid out his dream of a man on the moon, the United States was behind the Soviets in the space race and didn't even have any plans to put a man on the moon. Senator Obama proclaimed his hope, Tuesday night, to do the same except with energy independence. If elected, Senator Obama promised that the United States would no longer be dependent on foreign oil in 10 years. He made this statement in confidence that when we tell the American people something needs to get done, it gets done. I believe that would be the case and I hope we achieve this goal within the next 10 years whether Obama is elected or not, so that we can finally stop funding the people we're trying to fight. It just makes us look really dumb when we're fighting people using weapons we paid for.

My next two points are critiques of Senator McCain. Now some of you I'm sure are ready to nail me to the Democratic, partisan cross and label me nothing more than another liberal blogger that dreams of Michael Moore and Al Gore at night (that would be weird if ANY liberal were like that). But the fact is, these next two statements stuck out to me, so live with it.

2.) When the candidates were asked "Should the United States respect Pakistan sovereignty or ignore it to pursue Al Qaeda?" I think John McCain said something quite alarming. I say "I think," because if he actually did say it, then I would just be absolutely shocked if he got elected. I'll have to check the transcript to be sure, but I think within his answer he said he has a plan to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden. He has a plan, meaning he currently has knowledge that would successfully capture and kill the man largely responsible for 9-11. Well if I were the voter asking the question, I would demand a follow up. And that follow up would be "What the Hell are you freaking waiting for!?" Is he seriously saying that he has a plan that he will gladly share with us if elected? If he really has a plan, he needs to get it in the right hands - which I understand are hard to find these days. Again, I'm not 100% sure if I heard correctly, so I'll have to double check, but if he really claims to have a plan to capture and kill Bin Laden, he needs to not use it as blackmail to get him elected and give it to someone like General Petraeus. McCain seems to like Petraues enough. He only mentions him every time the Iraq War surge comes up, followed by "Senator Obama still will not admit it worked," which is of course also followed by his I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! face, but let's move on, my friends.

3.) "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb, Iran." I heard about this briefly in the first debate, but McCain didn't respond to it, at least to my knowledge. Tonight, however, Senator Obama brought up his signing a twist on the famous Beach Boys song and McCain responded to the allegation tonight. This was during the portion that Senator Obama fought for a follow up and McCain agreed, so long as he'd get a chance to follow up again. During his follow up, McCain said that he was just joking around with a friend. Ah yes, that's a classic joke.

Comedian McCain: Hello everyone! Hope you're having a good night tonight. We have a great show for you tonight, but to start off, I wanted to ask you all something. What's the best way to start an all out war in the Middle East, costing the lives of thousands of American soldiers, innocent civilians between all of the countries that would undoubtedly get sucked in and kill pretty much any shot we'd have of achieving peace in the Middle East for a long time. (Cue Beach Boy's music) Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb, Iran! Thank you, ladies and gentleman, you've been great!

I'm sure he would've heard crickets as I'm sure many of you heard while reading that made up scenario.

Yes, Iran isn't led by the most mentally stable leaders (you're a combination of the ultimate douche-bag and village idiot if you actually think the Holocaust didn't happen), and yes Iran poses a threat, but war certainly is no joke. And for someone that criticizes Senator Obama for allegedly announcing he would attack Pakistan elected, you sure look foolish. At least Obama didn't sing about it and I'm not entirely convinced he was announcing an attack.

Whelp, there you have it. My thoughts and muses on the second of three presidential debates. I hope you found them enlightening or maybe even - and I know this is a stretch - thought provoking. At the very least, I hope you were able to muster a laugh or two in order to make this campaign that's getting as painful as piranhas on a nut-sack a little more bearable to watch.

UPDATE 10:37am: I checked out the transcript last night and it seems that Senator McCain does know how to capture Osama Bin Laden. During the Pakistan portion of the debate, Senator McCain stated, "I'll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I'll get him. I know how to get him. I'll get him no matter what and I know how to do it." Yikes. Maybe he simply means he knows the protocol one has to go through to capture someone? I don't know, but based on early poll results, it seems Senator Obama won this one again, which isn't surprising.

As the election starts to wind down, things seem to be getting worse for the Republican ticket with no sign of salvation on the horizon. Senator McCain and Governor Palin can take solace in two things, though. One, John Kerry won all of his debates against President Bush and we all know how that turned out. Maybe Kerry should've stared into the camera looking comatose, allowing a little drool to fall out, so the Southern vote that overwhelming voted Bush could've identified with him better. Second, McCain and Palin are going against Democrats, a political party notorious for shooting themselves in the foot whenever they start to do well. Those are just a couple of points they can take solace in. I'd defintely keep them away from today's Gallup Poll, though, or they might drop into the fetal position, crying "But he's so inexperienced and we're mavericks!"after reading the latest results.