What was to be observed?

After the first Obama-Romney (in alphabetical order so as not to indicate this writer's preference) debate last week I commented that "I enjoyed this debate format, but as usual, i think it suffers from too short a time frame and too structured. As this had a PBS theme, I think I would have liked to see them in Bert and Ernie's beds, just talking about domestic policy between themselves until they fall asleep."

The principle purpose of this comment was to generate 'likes' on facebook so that I could feel clever and validated by people I don't talk to anymore.  But I also have this voyeuristic desire to see how people speak and behave when they feel they are neither being observed nor evaluated.  I love peering around a corner to see my niece playing with her dolls, providing both viewpoints of a conversation between the cuddly squid and the dump truck as each party makes their argument for a place on top of the dog. 

I know when I walk in the room I will be given a big smile and both the cuddly squid and the dump truck will begin to enthusiastically strike the dog because my niece enjoys the reaction of the dog yelping and me scrambling over to her to impart a rapid lesson on humane animal treatment.  However, if I stay in my furtive vantage point I get to learn that she has a growing grasp of the term 'important' and that she feels when two individuals debate they must begin each sentence with the template, "No (name here) that's not what I said..."

So I know that tonight when I watched the vice-presidential debate I was watching two men striking the dog to elicit a reaction from me.  And what I really want to see is how these guys talk about solving the nations problems when the nation is not around.  

Honestly, I think that if you were to leave the two of them at the table long enough you would hit a sweet spot of honesty sometime before the delirium that would come from exhaustion (though that would be helpful to observe in the presidential debate given the hours they must keep at times).