Obama is a fantastic public speaker, and if he wrote the whole thing himself then he has a brilliant wit.

I've also watched McCain's speech - not quite as good, but he's gone up in my estimation slightly. Yes, it did sound like a more coherent George Bush, but he had his funny moments.

Quick question about the dinner and whatnot - are the speeches supposed to be funny? I mean, is it a tradition, or was this year just different. I was expecting boring, ten minute speeches, and had moments where I thought, "I can't believe [Obama/McCain] is saying this!".

Overall, Obama sounded the better candidate - his speech was much more in touch with the now generation. A trend in politics these days seems to be that the younger, hipper candidates do well. Look at Maggie Thatcher in the late 70s/early 80s. Look at Tony Blair in 1997! The youngest person to become PM for nearly 200 years (age 43. The youngest was Lord Liverpool, I think, at age 42 in 1812)!

Btw, I didn't realise that the elections were only a few weeks away. November 4th, are they?