Draw!

The "boxing" analysts are at it again: number of jabs, power punches thrown and connect percentages. I think Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman could score the Romney-Obama debate just as well as any of these cable TV folks or political science professors with all those letters after their names. The process, when all is said and done, is exactly the same.

The President redeemed himself after the first debate, and it may be that many observers are scoring him higher just because he outperformed himself after being knocked down in the last contest. But Romney didn’t do poorly.

What’s the takeaway? Debates measure debating skills. They tell us to what lengths the candidates will go to play to particular audiences. Were they talking to all of us, or just Ohio?

But as I’ve said before, these events do tell us how the candidates behave under stress; how they treat each other, the questioners and the moderator are all little pieces of the puzzle that contribute to their portraits as human beings.

I’ve always believed that whether we like it or not, we are electing human beings to office, not just five-point plans or positions on issues. And they are human beings with particular knowledge bases and skill sets, and as voters, we have to decide the urgency of various issues facing us and who has the best tools to deal with them. If the economy is No. 1, the businessman’s skill set is paramount; if foreign policy is our thing, then it’s no time for a “rookie” in that department. And who offers the better balance?

I also always try to remember that Presidents are rarely able to deliver on all the promises they make to get elected, and today’s problems, in their specifics, may not be tomorrow’s. If a particular issue goes away, we’re still left with a human being in office. The fact is, neither of these guys has the degree of control over things he’s trying to convince us he has. But what we do have the right to expect is, whatever challenges surface, we have someone at the top who can lead us through them.

If someone puts a gun to my head and says that I have to vote today, I know which one I’ll pick. But I’m NOT voting today. I may very well have a different answer in a couple of weeks.