This is freakin’ scary, because I come from a family where talking about politics is a worse sin than talking about condoms. OMG. Did I just type “condoms?” Guess I’m really breaking some rules tonight! But then, how many nights do you get to see a debate against an aging ancient white guy and a hot mixed-race boy wonder, all the while wondering how to cast your one, infinitely diluted vote for either of them?

Before I go on, please beware. I’ve got a couple shots of good old all-American Kentucky bourbon in me, and I’m not feeling particularly politically correct. The only thing I’m feeling is the power of global electronic publishing, and that I’ve too often demurred from seizing the opportunities my bloggy pulpit might offer. Thanks to PBS, Maker’s Mark, and — Al Gore? — here goes.

First off, McCain looked pretty good for a geezer, but I’ve had enough experience in television studios to know that makeup is wonderful thing. Even improved under a layer of powder, his left cheek is large and ominously immobile, and the rest of that side of his face is worthy of concern, too. I couldn’t help thinking, when he talked about things that might happen in 2020, that this guy isn’t going to be around to find out. Oh, I know we should be endlessly understanding about all the health problems he can attribute to being a POW. But when it comes to running the country, I really do think health is an important asset. There must be other ways to honor McCain’s service than giving him residency in the White House.

Is McCain healthy? Tonight he seemed to be. His brain appeared to be perfectly functional. But even though he was quick with the repartee, I can’t help worrying about the mindset people get when they know their days are numbered. Those are the times when people begin to think, “Gotta do this before I die.” I’ve heard it voiced by others in McCain’s age bracket, and I couldn’t help getting the “hit it with your last shot” feeling when I heard the guy tonight. I’m not saying he doesn’t have knowledge. What he doesn’t have is a vested interest in how it all plays out. We all know teenagers have a reckless, “I’m immortal” streak. Far less recognized is the ancient guy’s “Fuck it, I’m mortal” streak. They’re alarmingly similar, the main difference being that the old dude has had a chance to build up power, prestige, influence—and maybe even a finger on a hideous button.

As I watched the two candidates face off, I couldn’t help thinking how they so accurately represent the last century and this new one. McCain fits the “old” presidential template so perfectly that he can claim not only cancer-inviting skin, white hair, and veteran’s benefits, but also membership in the Episcopal Church. Obama, on the other hand, has a name that might be confused with a terrorist’s. The product of a white woman and a black man, he couldn’t have achieved anything at all in the United States without the recent efforts of people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. Whether Obama wins the election or not, he represents an undeniable changing of the guard. The new America is not overwhelmingly white, male, melanoma-prone, or Episcopalian. Neither will the new America’s president be, at least someday.

So here they both were, the old and the new. Would it be like John Henry, the big black guy facing off against new-fangled machinery? As the debate proceeded, I began thinking that, yeah! It was like that. Except John McCain was the old steel-drivin’ man, and Barack Obama was the shiny new machine. And we all know how that story ended.

I’m sure that McCain supporters everywhere are saying—right this minute—that he won. And no doubt Obama’s camp is claiming a similar victory. I once judged high school debates, which might give me a modest set of credentials for selecting a winner in tonight’s event. But even if I were well qualified, I have no interest in assigning an academic victory. The victor in this contest will be the one who prevails in November, and that’s a contest that debates don’t win. The two dudes gotta keep going out there on the tracks and poundin’ steel.

What will it take to win? I like to think that it’ll be a brain. A young, forward-thinking brain that has the capability of fielding unexpected problems as they emerge. A brain who picked a running mate with some experience. Together, they could bring an overdue housecleaning to certain chambers in Washington.

At one point in the debate, McCain showed off a bracelet given to him by the mother of a soldier who had died in Iraq. “Don’t let his death be in vain,” she supposedly told him.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Obama was sporting a bracelet, too. “Don’t let any more die,” was what that mother reportedly said.

Both stories may or may not be true, but of all the other topics covered in the debate, nothing illustrated the mindset of the two candidates more clearly. McCain: consider what’s happened. Obama: consider what’s to come.

As a person somewhere in between the ages of both of them, I’m inclined to go with the guy who has two young daughters. The other guy? He’s wondering how many inches he’ll get in history books. And not only is he more interested in how he’ll come off in retrospect, he’s chosen a very scary understudy who has far too likely a chance of taking the stage.