Warped Shelalagh Edition

AT LAST -- we have our answer as to where McCain got his campaign and debate strategy.... "He's as crooked as a warped Shelalagh..." Brilliant.

John Heilemann at NY Mag notes that: Presidential debates are not only — or even mainly — about substance. They're about tone and affect and body language, and on all these counts, McCain was once again fairly awful. This time his awfulness was enhanced (or, rather, exacerbated) by the split-screen TV presentation. As Obama looked at him with preternatural calm, all smiles and nods and respectful glances and rueful shakes of the head, McCain twitched, smirked, glowered, smoldered, rolled his eyes. And when he opened his mouth, what came out was too often a tonal match for his facial expressions. He sneered at Obama, interrupted him constantly, mocked his eloquence. A Republican media savant with no small experience in presidential politics e-mailed me, "He's Bob Dole morphed into Howard Beale from Network. I've had fistfights with guys who looked less angry. I don't see how he gets on a commercial airline and passes security."