For Better or Worse, It's Almost Entirely About Looks

The debates are about how the candidates interact with each other and how they try to relate with the viewing audience. What people saw was a cool customer that seems to try to explain his positions and an angry old man who had to grip on to a Sharpie because his hands shake if left to their own devices.

McCain lost every debate badly because visual perception and interpretation is what determines the winner or loser - not the substance. McCain looked contemptuous and angry while also appearing not to believe some of the words coming out of his own mouth. Every joke he attempted to make, every snicker he tried to elicit fell flat. Whether it's his robotic hand gestures, his insincerity, his refusal to make eye contact in the first debate, his aimless wandering of the set during the second debate, or his palpable disrespect for an opponent largely attempting to be agreeable, John McCain lost support in all three debates even though people try to argue about "points."

These were the visual cues the public perceived.
Visual cues have a greater impact than the verbalized answers. John McCain looks angry, erratic, out-of-touch, and insincere.

He looks old as hell and he acts old as hell.

Forget leading a nation, I don't feel comfortable with John McCain behind the wheel of a Buick.