Random thoughts while watching the second presidential debate of 2008:

This debate was live from Nashville and it was in bad need of a honky-tonk band. Another opportunity lost . . .

10:30 pm: Anna Quindlen is right: This presidential campaign has "jumped the shark." Let's have the election tomorrow and get it over with. Good night, everybody! Good night now.

McCain is warning us about Putin. He sounds authoritative on foreign policy. But are Americans interested in this subject tonight?

McCain scored one for Obama -- he mentioned that Warren Buffet, one of the sharpest, shrewdest, most respected and richest men in the world, is an Obama supporter. There's probably a few millions Americans who didn't know that until 15 minutes ago.

Obama just got General David D. McKiernan's name correct. That's the one Sarah Palin flubbed the other night.

Obama just threw the, "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb-Bomb Iran" back into McCain's face, after McCain said he admired TR's walk-softly-and-carry-a-big-stick philosophy.

Both these guys realize the nation doesn't want to hear bickering and personal attacks. So they're generally behaving tonight, and tomorrow the attack ads will be back on TV.

Obama smartly explained his tax plan again, and he is strong here: He's appealing directly to the middle class and pinning tax breaks for fat cats on McCain at a time when the nation's regard for fat cats is at an all-time low. Obama mentioned today's scandal involving that $400,000-plus junket for AIG officials and said they should be fired. Some call this class warfare. I call it sharp rhetoric, smartly timed.

McCain just said he wants a commission to look at Social Security.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Though it would calculate employer-paid health benefits as taxable income, McCain's plan to give individual tax credits so that Americans can shop around for coverage has simple elegance and appeal. A poll released this week indicates that voters who consider themselves independent rank health care and insurance third as an election issue, behind the economy and the Iraq war. It's low on the list for Republicans -- 'cuz most of them already have it! -- so McCain is speaking to an issue of importance to voters who may still be undecided about this election.

The first guy to ask a question, Allen Shaffer, looks like Rod Steiger. Rod Steiger with a deep southern accent.

So far, a dull debate. We've heard all this before.

The people who organized this should have prohibited McCain from using the words, "earmarks," and "maverick."

Amazing. An old lady from Chicago just asked via the Internet what Obama or McCain would ask the American people to "sacrifice" going forward. Imagine that  -- a president asking us to sacrifice something for the country instead of shopping for the country.

It's bald guy night at the debate.

I think the organizers of this show gave everyone in the town hall audience barbituates. They are absolutely expressionless -- like the jury at a federal mail fraud trial.

Tom Brokaw keeps trying to get these guys to keep their comments within the time limits. He's not winning, and Obama seems to be the one who's violating the time rules.

We heard most of this stuff in the first debate. Did I just repeat myself? It's quite likely; there's a lot of that going around.

Only one bald guy was allowed to ask a question. What's up with that?