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Perhaps it was the novelty of being the first head-to-head contest between Barack Obama and John McCain.
Most of the audience, I imagine, were Americans seeking a thoughtful airing of issues. Another group would be the morbid, like people who watch Lou Dobbs expecting him to burst an artery.
A smaller group was partisans and bloggers waiting to pounce and announce their (predetermined) opinions of winners and losers. The next morning, left-wing Web sites (Daily Kos, Huffington Post) had Obama winning in a walk, while right-wing Web sites (Drudge, Townhall) awarded the laurel to McCain.
Look, neither candidate set off an IED. FactCheck.org shows only minor misstatements and mild distortions by each man, not head-exploding lies.
No honest person can say the debate was a game-changer. It didn't reset the race. Neither man threw a haymaker, preferring to jab and move. Neither had a silver bullet, but I think there is one.
Before the debate, Democrats painted McCain as ignorant on the economy, out of touch, practically senile. Republicans called Obama an arrogant elitist who can't string together two coherent thoughts without a TelePrompTer.
McCain "won" by walloping Washington and Wall Street, by not blowing his stack or wetting his pants. Obama "won" by going toe-to-toe with the senior senator, avoiding Sominex-like windy answers and not commanding the sun to rise at 9 p.m.
While moderator Jim Lehrer repeatedly urged the two to talk to each other, McCain fixed his gaze on Lehrer, while Obama looked at the camera, which is a technique to connect with viewers.
McCain's repeated use of "you don't understand" came across as condescending. Clips of Obama's gracious concessions, "John McCain was right about that," are already being used against him. Don't expect a repeat. The debate was mostly civil, steering away from lipsticked pigs, bridges to nowhere and wacky ministers.
Since no one emerged with an undisputed win, don't expect civility in the next two debates. The candidate who is down in the polls will put on the pads and the jockstrap and play offense.
The debate unfolded against a backdrop of national economic angst so severe we've heard the "D" word, as in "Depression," not "Democrat." Our gut-punched economy has driven terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the back pages. It is Issue No. 1.
And Issue No. 1 occupied a long stretch of the debate's opening, but Lehrer couldn't get the candidates to say how the financial disaster would affect the promises they've already made. McCain would cut taxes, earmarks and pork, which he recited like rosary beads. Obama named the programs he would not cut, and there were a lot of them.
Lehrer was more interested in getting financial answers than the boys were in giving them. That may be because no one really knows the best way out of the maze. One thing is clear, though: In a CNN/Opinion Research poll, 77 percent of Americans think the looming bailout will reward Wall Street for bad behavior. They don't like it.
The candidate who can tap into that will move into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in January.
E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:
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