Here are a few debate follow-up discussion questions for anyone who might be interested in continuing the conversation.  Please feel free to answer any or all of them, or offer your general opinion on the town hall debate.

1. Did you watch the Town Hall debate of the U.S. presidential candidates last night?
2. Who do you think was the winner, and why?
3. What was the most memorable moment for you?
4. If you could ask the candidates one question, what would it be?

Personally, I agree with most of the media coverage outlining Obama as clearly stronger in the economic portion of the debate, but McCain’s military experience as providing him more of a comfort zone in the second portion of the debate.  He is well versed in that area, even if I don’t agree with some of his choices.  Overall, I think that Obama rose to the top, and McCain came across as a cheerleader (“Go America!”) without much of a plan.

There were several memorable moments in the debate — McCain behaving disrespectfully to Obama when he called him “that one” and such, but I think the most memorable image for me, simply because it made me laugh, was at the end of the debate when both candidates stepped in front of Tom Brokaw’s camera and teleprompter.  You’ve got to love live TV!  Well, TiVo that I could pause when needed so that I wouldn’t miss anything was an even better feature, so I guess technically by the end, I was watching it about ten minutes behind the “live action.”

After the debate was over, I thought that the interaction of the potential first ladies with members of the audience was interesting.  Michelle Obama looked so much more human, actually having conversations where she appeared to ask questions and listen to individual people, while Cindy McCain looked every bit the Stepford wife, very stiff in her interactions with people.  Personally, I’d like to hear more from both of them.