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“Out of my way, old timer.” “Who you callin’ old, youngster?”

The first debate – a solid, mostly issue-based tussle between two near-adults. Something we have not seen in presidential politics since I-don’t-know-when.

Where are we in US history? Yesterday, a pundit called Geo. Bush Jr. a “high functioning moron,” a widely-held view for years, but unspeakable among Bush supporters. But today, the local conservative, Patriots-of-America-first talk show radio host (Jay Severin, Boston 96.9, hyper-enunciating) spent ten minutes explaining to his unhappy audience why the comment was exactly correct.

Head to head:

McCain – leads on national issues. His answers are more compelling, more succinct, and seem to reflect a history of experience and success in pushing back against Washington excess. Seems to, I’ll say, because though he makes beautiful promises about cutting spending and putting the US on a diet, there were questions remaining at the end about where he favors or has favored corporate welfare.

McCain did answer one of Obama’s jabs about lowering taxes on industry, by pointing out that keeping industry in America is now our job. This rings loudly for me, and probably for many others, who see the dislocation of labor to any and every other cheaper-working nation, as a practice that needs examination and overhaul.

Sen. McCain also seemed to have a better line, or hold, on what would be necessary to right the current mafia takeover (bailout) of corrupted lending and investment banks; he undoubtedly gained crowd support (including mine) when he mentioned federal prison in his comments about people who steal, steal, steal from US citizens.

McCain also did grimace a great deal, and really earned the moniker I’ve given him, that has not yet caught on: Popeye. Give it a try, I think it’s got legs.

– Grimace? President Popeye? Pops McCain?

Obama – leads on Iraq, war and peace, and international relations. Yes, the hard right will want to clobber him for admitting that he would Talk with even a despised foreign leader, before waging war on them – but this is the right strategy for a saner world.

McCain batted at him with a constant refrain of “You’re not experienced! I know war! You don’t!”, to the point that it wore a bit of a hole in the conversation.

Obama (Barry, to his friends), responded with more clarity on the war issue than on any other he addressed, responding that the Iraq war was unwise from its inception; he pointed to Afghanistan and Pakistan as the necessary targets for US intervention in battling terrorist cells;

He made every correct gesture to the free world to let it know that the US would not be, under his administration, a unilaterally-acting cowboy police force of one, as has been our recent suicidal practice.

Sen. McCain jabbed continuously on Barry O’s lack of belief and support for “The Surge,” which McPops said had been a success, under Gen. Petraeus. Barry agreed that it might be a temporary success, but the question of the utility and wisdom of invasion came first.

McCain countered that Iraq was the central repository of al Queda; Barry said that there was no al Quaeda in Iraq before the US invasion.

McCain said Obama’s plan for Iraq would cause a total failure there (”According to Gen. Petraeus,” he said, over and over, like he was talking about his schoolyard best friend); he added that the success in Iraq was tenuous and could not survive Obama’s plan, which differs from McCain’s in that it has a definite pull-out date. (That’s a series of suggestive words, isn’t it? Definite pull-out date? My goodness).

I don’t know any more about Obama’s plan is for Iraq, but if the grand success of the surge is also ‘tenuous’, I think we’re not looking at success as I would define it, but rather at “Permanent Occupation,” perhaps by a joint command, which I think is closer to what Will happen.

(And who says “liberation and democratization by invasion, attack, destabilization and mass death” wasn’t a good plan? (I did, did you? Did they ignore you too? Yes, yes, they did.))

Barry missed that rejoinder, which would’ve been an important point to make, I think.

Obama did say that al Quaeda was far from defeated, and that “we haven’t gotten Osama bin Laden,” and the people who committed the 9/11 attacks, who are, he said, “still putting out video tapes.” At which point somebody in the room here said, “Karl Rove is putting out video tapes?”

Is that too much for some readers? I imagine so, but then again, a walk through the security briefings, warning and reports that were ignored prior to that horrible, horrible day in New York, might make you ask who was in charge, and why were they acting with such little regard for our nation. Find some of those linked here, and report your findings to the Warren Commission.

Energy

Both agree, “We must get ourselves off of foreign oil and into energy independence.” Obama talked about “wind, solar, and biodiesel.” McCain talked about those, plus ” nuclear, nuclear, nuclear. ” (Which is where the country is headed, by the way, shake in your boots all you want, but you know it’s so).

Obama agreed that he was against the recycling of “spent radioactive material.” And it’s all a little terrifying, (although it’s “very safe!” And I’m sure we’ll all be “green” soon.)

(I hereby predict that the worst part of a nuclear US won’t be the energy production itself – it will be the paranoia generated by it – the strip-search security, invasion of privacy in travel, the horror of even getting on an interstate bus, with accompanying blood-and-stool-sample plus cavity-search, saliva-swab and recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance all to buy a Greyhound ticket, when nuclear power runs the country).

So, this round, all in all, to…

Barry O. No, the bailout was not correctly addressed by anyone. The bailout is a criminal matter that looks very much like the continuation of a corporate coup d’etat, that was started somewhere under Clinton, or Bush 1, or Reagan. ( Blame Adam Smith for a good idea gone awry, but we eat too much, spend too much, and think too little ).

What Obama had that McCain did not, tonight, was an attitude that declared that all military options are available to the United States in dealing with its adversaries – but that talking first is what a civilized nation does, before it proceeds to wage an international war.

That said, McCain may, in time, prove right about some of the nations in question – Iraq, Iran. Churchill was right about the Bolsheviks, Germany in the 30s, and Stalin throughout – and his people still kept him out of power until he was absolutely needed, and then, he was irreplaceable. But you can’t attack peremptorily because of suspicions, without becoming the monster that you fear.

• The Guardian.co.uk blog, giving McCain the victory, but not [a] decisive one.