Liveblogging post-mortem

Hillary Rosen:

Two moments went off the charts on the reaction meters:

* Obama says health care is a right.

* Obama says he does understand foreign policy, but doesn’t understand why we attacked Iraq.

I seem to have missed the worst McCain moment: referring to Obama as “That One.” Ugly.

Spoke too soon: “That One” was only McCain’s second-worst moment. Here’s the worst:

McCain taps Obama on the shoulder after the debate, Obama turns toward him with his hand out, and McCain declines the handshake, leaving Obama to shake hands with Cindy. Really ugly. And noticed.

Correction A reader writes:

I played the video from when Brokaw ends the debate onward. The camera was right on Brokaw, but you could just see that the candidates had met and shaken hands, then parted to make the rounds. I think that McCain was tapping Obama on the back to say, “Hey, here’s Cindy.” Obama had to turn all the way around to meet her.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com