Low Monkey Man

Interesting tidbit from the debate. Many commentators have noted that throughout the debate, McCain refused to acknowledge Obama, in fact, refused to even look over at Obama. Some wrote this off as contempt and maybe some low level effort at basic anger management. But a commentator over at TalkingPoints memo who studies monkies in an academic environment, makes this observation:

I think people really are missing the point about McCain's failure to look at Obama. McCain was afraid of Obama. It was really clear--look at how much McCain blinked in the first half hour. I study monkey behavior--low ranking monkeys don't look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that.

In the context of McCain's heirarchical world view, this seems almost right. Certainly, I bet the eye contact thing has also got something to do with being dressed down by superiors as he wound his way through the Naval Academy (at the bottom of the class). In the USMC, when you are being bitched at--at least during boot camp--one of key and first directives to the trainee--is never ever ever look at the drill instructor. As a mere trainee, you're not 'good enough' to look the DI in the eye. So, subliminally, at least, Obama is schooling McCain, and McCain knows it.