First, the impression of the Beautiful and Wise Mrs. Haller: REALLY liked the format. She liked that she got to hear both guys without a lot of follow-up questions and people talking over one another. She watched the whole thing which is very unusual for her.
Second, my impression: I was skeptical about the format, but really like it. The questions were not particularly probing, but they brought out most of the major views that I think are important.
I did not expect to be impressed by Obama and I was not. He really reminds me of the guy in school (law school) who likes the sound of his own voice but cannot connect on a factual level. He was full of empty platitudes.
(Sidebar: we really need a discussion in the church and in politics about poverty.)
McCain, on the other hand, connected well and used humor, narrative in the right way. He blew Obama away in the way that he connected with the audience, both there at Saddleback and on TV. He outmatched Obama on many, many levels. If he does not screw up the VP choice, he might have sealed the deal with many evangelicals. I really liked the response when RW said he was going to ask about education and McCain said: Yes, yes, no and fire the incompetent teachers." It was very funny.
Impression of some on the left: had to drive an hour both ways to the in-laws and listened to AirAmerica. On one show (think it was called Politically Direct) and the host was beside himself. He is a BIG Obama supporter and he thought that McCain did so well that he thinks that as more people see this, it will seal the election for McCain.
Not all of the people who called in agreed: some said RW was a shill for McCain, that McCain must have listened to or been fed the Qs by his staff or some Saddleback mole, that McCain's answers were "too pat" and really not thoughtful. They liked the "obviously thinking hard" motif of Obama.
MSM comments I heard from CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Candy Crowley: we were really surprised at the receiption that Obama received. CC said it was so warm that she thought it was a pro-Obama crowd. She was surprised when McCain received a similar welcome.
To expand on Tony's "bubble" point from the other day, I think this shows that the MSM also lives in a bubble. They have no clue what a church like Saddleback is about. They think it's full of a lot of non-thinking sycophants, and when the reality they observe does not match up with that assumption, the MSM is confused.
When I hear people describe what I saw and what they think they saw, I think we either inhabit parallel universes or they are brain damaged (I'm pretty sure they would say the same about me).
In any event, this was very well done and McCain was the hands down winner.