The first Presidential debate of the 2008 campaign is history and all the poll results are cascading in.  I’ve never been good at predicting the winners of these things.  Back in 1984, when Ronald Reagan had a series of senior moments in his debate with Walter Mondale (right down to running out of time in the middle of his famous Shining City on a Hill story) I declared that Mondale had mopped the floor with ol’ Dutch.  The network anchors called it a draw.  Since then I just haven’t bothered offering my opinion.

But tonight, something quite noticeable stood out between McCain and Obama.  It had nothing to do with what either man was actually saying.  It had everything to do with each man’s body language. Based on that, Obama emerged victorious.  If you noticed, John McCain never once looked in Barack Obama’s direction - not when he was listening to Obama speak and not even when he was excoriating him for “just not understanding” how this complex and dangerous game of foreign policy is played.  Acting as though Obama wasn’t even in the room undermined the image McCain’s been trying to craft for himself as a reasonable guy who can play nicely with others.  In fact, by never looking at his opponent, McCain came across as petulant and even bordering on hostile. Obama, on the other hand, had good sustained eye contact with McCain throughout the evening, even when his opponent was delivering harsh criticism.  By doing so, Obama created the visual perception that he was not intimidated by McCain’s attacks.  McCain’s behavior however, made him seem like a man who is losing ground against an opponent he just can’t face.

Many experts say that what we take away from others is only 36% verbal.  The rest of our evaluation of others is influenced by non-verbal communication tools.  Tonight, Barack Obama had the more robust tool kit.