Belated post-debate notes

Speaking as someone who debates now and then, I think there is much to be said for not being too highly prepped with a bunch of canned statements and ready-to-go one-liners. Improvisation is valuable, though of course it requires that you know what you're talking about, which McCain clearly does on foreign policy, and hence his fairly strong showing last night. On economics, Obama was more polished, though his effort to lay the financial crisis at the feet of Republican deregulation is, to say the least, not the fullest picture of what actually happened.