Last night's presidential debate was decidedly... unenlightening and boring. Although the town hall format could have brought something new to the table, the game remained virtually unchanged. McCain had a tough job to do, as he entered the debate nine points down in the polls by some reports. Many Americans are now scrutinizing Obama more closely in light of the view that he is the more probable future president, and this is something McCain could have capitalized on - but he didn't, at least not as much as he could have. Both candidates presented their positions rather well, but this is old news - especially when Obama seemed to avoid directly answering questions in favor of steering the debate towards prepped talking points. Important issues came up, but the responses given could have been directly taken from campaign speeches. In what turned out to be a highly conventional debate, we heard the candidates reiterate their positions on health care, taxation, Iran, Russia, and energy. There remained much divergence and some agreement. The economy and current economic conditions were understandably a time-consuming focus.

But despite the need to address the economy in light of significant changes that have taken place since the last time the candidates faced off, I think Tom Brokaw could have made some more interesting decisions regarding question choices. When citizens, and not journalists, are given the opportunity to ask the questions, fascinating issues are bound to come up - and we can get a unique insight into our politicians' characters and lives. In this debate, however, if you agree with Obama's positions, you probably felt like Obama won; likewise, if you went into it a McCain fan, you more than likely believed him to be the winner (case in point: both the FoxNews on-screen poll following the debate and the Drudge Report online poll declared McCain the winner). Did it do anything for the undecideds? I've made up my mind, so I can't be certain, but my guess would be that it didn't do a whole lot in terms of issues.

But maybe the spotlight wasn't on the issues. Maybe the goal was to see the next president being, well, presidential - a goal both candidates succeeded in. Obama was comfortable, said things a lot of people want to hear, and presented himself as empathetic. But as McCain repeatedly brought up, it comes down to rhetoric versus record. So keeping that in mind, and in light of this rather promising debate format that failed to live up to my hopes, I've assembled a list of my own questions, specifically for Senator Obama. Some of these contain issues that I wish McCain had brought up, and some require more than a two-minute response, so poor Tom needs to stop looking at the timer.

Please enjoy this brief news unreel before our feature presentations. A rare multinational agreement has been reached: 

China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States decided to swat Iran with a third round of sanctions because of questions surrounding Iran's nuclear research. But last December this arm in arm in arm in arm in arm in arm agreement looked like it wasn't going to happen. President Bush lost face to the world when a U.S.-produced National Intelligence Estimate report suggested Iran did in fact pass the sniff test for weaponized uranium. Bush's claims for imposing sanctions were seemingly hollow (liberal and conservative analysis) and his urge toward sanctions was sunk. Three months later, the sanctions are in. Reasons? Some say a CIA-procured laptop once belonging to an Iranian technician put a good spook into more than a few countries. Iran's consistently cagey claim to an "inalienable right to peaceful nuclear technology" didn't fly this time either. But really, who knows how they do things in that ultimate players lounge they like to call the United Nations Security Council?  Furthermore, let us not forget that sanctions are for governments and movies are for people.

So, let's get on with the counter-programming.

Hamsarayan (The Chorus)