So Liz and I have watched the last handful of the debates. We'd tried watching a couple times when there were still a zillion Democrats left, but it was pretty unbearable. It's been interesting to me.

First, it's interesting that there have been more Clinton/Obama debates than I can recall there ever being between the Republican and Democratic final candidates. Second, I've been intrigued by the varying formats of the debates, though to be fair, the candidates often make a mockery of the format in order to talk about the "more important" issues. Most interesting, to me at least, has been watching the change in debate tactics and tone used by Clinton as she has shifted from prohibitive favorite to presumed prohibitive underdog.

Follow up:

In the earliest debates, I actually felt that there were times when Clinton out-performed Obama. She had been clearer, more concise, and more able to deliver specifics on her points. However, last night, Clinton appeared to have lost it. Though the format of the debate was untimed, but reasonably lengthed, answers, Clinton appeared to take as much time as possible each time she spoke. She cut off or spoke over Obama and the moderators. Most shockingly, when Obama replied to her points with details and specifics of why he thought, say, his health plan was more comprehensive than hers, she would just angrily reply with the exact same thing she had previously said, but louder. In all, it felt like watching a patient adult debate with an angry teenager.

Sadly, the last few debates have been characterized and quoted for pretty childish stuff from Clinton: "Change you can Xerox", "Shame on you Barack", "He has a mandate too!", etc. Even more sadly, the incentives are apparently all screwed up, because it shouldn't make sense for someone at this point who has a high probability of losing to keep tarnishing their image.

I'm hoping someone else has been watching these things, and maybe even someone who has felt that Clinton has done OK the last couple weeks. Can anyone give me some examples of where they think any specific Clinton proposed policy is better than any Obama counterpart?

Anyway, as a reward, I guess, a related link Intrade.com is a site that makes markets for political, entertainment, and other news items. They used to do sports too, but they pulled out of that market. Not only can you watch the speculation market (or participate) for good practical stuff like "Obama to win the 2008 Presidential Election", you can make guesses about things like, Google's market share, OJ Simpson's new trial, or global earthquakes. Neat stuff.