The XX Factor: What women really think.

McCain vs. "That One,'' the Opera

From what I could tell, however, the candidates were as rude as their hecklers, proclaiming the questions excellent and then ignoring them. (I did not think McCain calling Obama "that one'' was so insulting, though; I could be wrong, but I thought he meant to do it jokingly —sort of like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler always calling each other "this one''—and didn't quite pull it off.) Their mutual refusal to stray from their stump speeches is what offended me; we're in a crisis here, as we all agree, yet most of what they had to say last night was a remix of the same old musty talking points they've been spouting for months. And with McCain pacing around behind Obama, with all the glassy-eyed steadiness of that New York mafia don who used to pad around in his bedroom slippers pretending to be out of it while secretly still running the whole operation, I at one point thought they might burst into song, call it a comic opera, and basta. McCain's "cut taxes and earmarks" aria really was ridiculous, mate, and Obama's "the middle class needs a rescue package'' refrain so vague that it really was "nothing new, nothing new.'' Sadly, I'm not sure the rest of us who were leaning forward so expectantly missed a single thing we hadn't heard before.