I wasn’t going to blog about the debate tonight. I didn’t expect to hear anything new and for anyone to change their minds. But I’m getting too many e-mails. People want to vent. So, here goes…

The pundits are saying that McCain won the first half an hour and Obama won the second half hour. I’m not sure about about. McCain had the whole Joe the Plumber thing, which was sort of catchy. But Obama responded to that gimmick very well. He pointed out that 95% of small business owners don’t make more than $200,000 (at least that they declare). He pointed out that all these earmark nonsense is only half of 1% of the federal budget. Maybe Obama needs to point out that most Joe the Plumbers could really use health care for their kids, that Joe’s workers need dentists, too, that they need childcare. But he didn’t go there.

Let’s talk about special needs education, since that’s what most of the e-mail is about. As one buddy said, does McCain think that Palin’s kid has autism? Another said, what the hell does Palin know about raising a special needs kid? Trig is only 6 months old!

As a mom of a special needs kid, I want more than love and support from political leaders, because that doesn’t run too deep. Yeah, research into causes is fine, but that’s not going to help me too much. I need programs. I need for my kid to have more than three half hour sessions of speech therapy per week. He needs after school activities. He needs teachers who really get that even though he’s slow in some ways, he has an IQ of 150. I shouldn’t have to go, hat in hand, to the school district to plead for these services.

Let’s talk about appearances, since that seems to be how most of these pundits decide who wins and who loses debates. McCain’s head looked like it was going to explode, when he was waiting for Obama to finish speaking. Seriously. I thought blood was going to spurt from his ears. Angry, aggressive men play really, really badly with women.

This debate didn’t change anyone’s mind, but I think that it solidified opinions. If you walked into this debate in the Obama camp, you left actively hating McCain. And, I’m sure, the opposite was true.