EXTRA: 20 more days ‘til Election Day

We are going to hear much from the political pontificators in upcoming days about the repeated grins, smirks and attempts by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama to repress laughs at Republican John McCain every time the senator from Arizona went overboard in making accusations against Barack during their final debate Wednesday at Hofstra University.

I can already hear the social conservative pundits claiming that Obama was laughing at the American people as a whole with such behavior.

ASIDE FROM THE fact that he was really just trying to avoid giggling at McCain’s over the top debate rhetoric, I doubt it was more outrageous than the continued rolling of the eyes that McCain did whenever Obama spoke.

And I don’t think McCain did anything wrong. I’d be more concerned if he sat there for 90 minutes with no expression on his face – no human being can do that.

For those who are going to get upset at my use of the word “overboard” to describe many of McCain’s charges, I think it is appropriate. Take his feigned outrage at the attempt by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., to compare the McCain campaign rhetoric to that of one-time segregationist Gov. George Wallace.

No matter how many times McCain said Obama had never repudiated Lewis’ comments, it is a lie. Obama distanced himself from the comment the day it was made.

SO WHAT ELSE was notable for those of us who bothered to watch the presidential debate, as opposed to the National League playoffs or reruns of The George Lopez Show on Nickelodeon?

“Joe the Plumber” from Ohio seemed to be the focus of both candidates. There were times I felt like Barack Obama and John McCain were interested in talking solely to him, and not to the rest of us.

For what it’s worth, the Associated Press reported that he watched the debate, and remained uncommitted to vote for either candidate. He later told CBS News that he believes in keeping his vote a secret until he actually casts his ballot on Election Day.

So who gets credit for the hardest rhetorical shot of the night?

WAS IT McCAIN when he snapped at the continued attempts to claim the Arizona senator would be four more years of George Bush by saying, “If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run four years ago.”

Or was it Obama when he blasted the continued attempts to tie the senator to one-time Weatherman Bill Ayers by saying, “your focus on this issue says more about your campaign than it does about me.”

Or was the most quotable moment the final words of wisdom attributed by debate moderator Bob Schieffer to his mother when he concluded the 90-minute event by saying, “Go vote now. It’ll make you feel better.”

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