At the beginning of the 2d - “town hall” - debate, when the candidates came out McCain immediately sat down and began writing on his pad of paper, and didn’t stop until the moderator spoke to him. Last night he also began writing as soon as he sat down.
I doubt we will ever find out for certain what he was writing (imagine what those notes might fetch on ebay!), but does anyone have any thoughts on what it might have been?
I’m assuming that just before he came out he read/heard some key words/points/phrases he wanted to hit either in his opening or throughout the debate, and he wanted to jot them down as reminders before they might slip his mid during the heat of the debate. But it looked a tad odd, didn’t it?
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
All work and no play makes John a dull boy
In the attempt at a serious reply, it could be that it’s all a bit of theater. McCain’s people might have told him that it gives him the appearance of being thoughtful and astute.
It came across the other way to me, senile or sinister. Almost as if he couldn’t remember all the points he had to make and needed notes, or he was jotting down bits of quotes to take out of context in his next rebuttal.
Maybe it just gave him something to do/look at. Because when he was looking at the camera, or, god forbid, “smiling” at it, or wandering around the stage, he looked much worse than when he was scribbling.
I suspect that this is the right answer. It’s an awkward sort of moment – where do you look? do you greet people? This gave him something to fill the time, much as news anchors do.