...and the loser is

This debate. And Tom Brokaw.

We were promised an interactive "town hall," where audience member could quiz the candidates live, and Brokaw would channel the questions submitted by citizens online. Obama and McCain, freed from podiums, might mix it up.

Instead, the patient undecideds surrounding the candidates were barely allowed a peep - let alone a follow-up or reaction shot (unless one of the Senators happened to stand close by). Given the unprecedented number of new voters this cycle, one would think our presidential debates would find a way to incorporate them significantly (over the internet, perhaps?). Nope: the dozens of "real people," as political operatives call them, were mere props on a TV set. And Brokaw chided the Senators if they attempted to do something interesting.