John McCain was begging for debates in the town hall format. But I’m taking the minority position that it actually hurt him. When he padded around the platform, he looked like an old man, late at night, looking for the refrigerator. It’s not exactly that he looked tired. It’s that his gait seemed that of a sprightly but elderly gent.
And there was that odd moment when Obama was talking and McCain wandered in and out of the background like he was lost.
McCain apparently performs well in these formats when alone but apparently his campaign didn’t realize that the dynamic is entirely different when there’s another man, a younger man, on the stage, too.

They both had some good moments substantively — McCain’s close was particularly strong — but the atmospherics favored Obama.
UPDATE: A few other things that occurred to me while walking the dog:
The first few times that McCain talked about how unpopular he is in the Senate it seemed a sign of his independence. But his constant reminder of how everyone there hates him – combined with his petulance toward Obama – makes one wonder: how can he get things done in Congress if they can’t stand him?
McCain thinks “bipartisanship” is the same thing as having a willingness to buck your own party. He criticized Obama for not breaking with the Democrats enough. That’s actually a very inside-the-beltway mentality. Many establishment journalists use that as a test of a candidate’s integrity. But most people who succeed across party lines do so without actually alienating their own party, think: Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch. Because McCain’s particular efforts at bipartisanship have indeed irritated the Republican party – especially campaign finance reform – he’s come to equate the two. But to most Americans, it’s the guy who seems respectful of his opponents who is most likely to successfully work across party lines.
Finally, was McCain’s strange joke about hair transplants meant to be a dig at Joe Biden?