And McCain should be lambasted if he did mention it. It's been the theme song of the Republican Party since 9/12/01. Obama was smart to bring it up and take it away from McCain should he attempt to make the "with Republicans you're safer" argument.

I found the debate mostly boring.

Obama was clearly the "winner" of this debate. He came across as being more likable and like CP said he hit back when necessary and didn't let things go like Kerry did.

There were too many awkward moments coming from McCain. The hairplugs line, the nailing Jell-o to the wall comment, the weird pacing he did...

This may seem like a minor point but McCain's "that one" stuck with me. It was condescending and a failed attempt at a light-hearted moment. It hit me the wrong way and I think it will with other people too.

The Obamas stuck around after the debate was over and talked to people. That played very well for him. McCain and his Stepford Wife disappeared.

Nope. Sorry Leo. I just scanned through the entire discussion of the last debate. Not one mention of 9/11 by anyone here.

Perhaps it was in the McCain discussion. I know it happened because I questioned it.

Edited to add:

My bad. It was predebate when McCain was talking about suspending his campaign.

It started here and went on.

In fact, JW, you made your feelings pretty well known....but I guess it was only when "they" bring up 9/11.

You beat me to it, Leo.

I guess in the context that McCain put it, it is less offensive to me than to some of the others in that thread. In hindsight though, since McCain really didn't suspend anything and instead was playing a political game, I question everything he said in his little speech.

Yeah. I saw Obama and his America hating wife socializing. Oh, wait. My bad. We aren't supposed to use ad hominem attacks here.

I agree. McCain was certainly playing a political game.

That reminds me of something that amused me in the debate. McCain said we'd tackle energy, health care, and entitlements at the same time. Obama said we had to prioritize. The reason I found this amusing was that Obama, when McCain suspended his campaign, said Presidents have to be able to multitask.

Even though I still won't be voting for him, I thought McCain won.

I thought that only one of them truly butchered an answer, which was near the end when Obama was talking about Russia and Putin.

As Mousepod stated above, it's all in the context.... and in the volume. I hear it over and over (and over and over) from Republicans. And when they do, it's all about fearmongering. All about distraction. Bush and Co couldn't give a rat's ass about the victims of 9/11 - only in the power the phrase holds over frightened people.

I heard some of it on the radio, I found McCain's use of the phrae "my friend" annoying - made me have flashbacks to the movie Barfly. Bukowski would have made an interesting president.

He didn't say we HAVE to prioritize. He was answering the question as posed, "how would you prioritize these?" (McCain got the more crowd pleasing answer out first - we can do it all - and Obama would have looked lame if he said the same thing.)