John McCain: More Human Than Mr. "Hope"

"Made a more emphatic electoral appeal than Obama did, offering himself up as a leader who understands the economic challenges facing American families and using many of his longer answers to talk about current issues such as energy and Russia. Not as optimistic as Obama, but cracked his share of jokes, which the audience ate up, even the ancient ones. At other times, visibly moved the crowd telling two stories from his Vietnamese POW days: his refusal to be set free by his captors ahead of others who were taken prisoner before him (since it would have violated the U.S. code of conduct), and the time one of his jailers drew a cross in the dirt to share a Christmas moment. Was unusually passionate and articulate when talking about education choice and competition, as well as Islamic terrorists, Russia, and Georgia. Gave a more fluid answer than Obama did to the classic “why do you want to be president?” question."

-- Mark Halperin (who isn't a bad journalist) judging John McCain's performance at the Rick Warren gabfest, for TIME Magazine