Impressions on the morning after the big debate.

I declined to live-blog last night. Instead, I sat in my comfy chair, alongside my husband Meade, and watched. I wasn't inert — except when I snoozed — but I didn't take notes and I let it run straight through. No pausing for mini-debates of our own. We talked over the candidates when we had comments. The local station butted in a few times to tell us about the approaching thunderstorm and dropped us back into the ongoing debate. Whatever we missed, we missed. Then the thunderstorm delivered its message, louder than any of the candidates (even Julian Castro), so we missed even more.

Yes, I could read the transcript and attend to all the little details, but that would be so boring. Instead, I'll just give you the unique gift I have to give: my impressions of the debate after 8 hours of sleeping and dreaming. I present myself as something like an ordinary person who has watched and been affected by the debate. I'll make a numbered list so I don't get bogged down or bored.

1. I remember Julian Castro going for broke. The stakes were different for him. So he yelled at Biden. It was rude. He taunted him about forgetting something he'd said earlier in a clumsy effort to tap our prejudice against old people. Our memories are failing. I am old and my memory of Julian Castro is the clearest of all my memories of the candidates last night, but my memory of him is that he was rude and ageist.

2. Joe Biden did look old — especially when I switched from the downstairs TV to the newer upstairs TV. The sharper image of him is a little disturbing — I can see that his hair is a strange illusion — but the sharpness of his mind is what matters. He seemed ready to fight, and his idea was he identified with Barack Obama and he offers to make the country into where it would go if we still had Barack Obama. Make America Barack-Obama-Style Again. MABOSA!

3. Bernie was awful. His voice had acquired a new raspiness that made his angry, yelling style outright ugly. I couldn't believe I needed to listen to him. I cried out in outrage and pain. The stabbing hand gestures — ugh! This is the Democrats second-most-popular candidate? I loved Bernie when he challenged Hillary 4 years ago. The anger was a fascinating mix of comedy and righteousness. But the act is old, and the socialism — did Joe call him a "socialist" more than once? — is scary. We can't be having a raving crank throwing radical change in our face.

4. Elizabeth Warren was there on the other side of Biden. She and Bernie were double-teaming Joe, and that worked... for Joe. He linked Warren to Bernie: She's for Bernie/I'm for Barack. I remember Warren reacting to every question with "Listen..." Like we're the slow students in her class and we haven't been paying attention and she's getting tired of us. We should already know what she's been saying on whatever the question happens to be. She was sunny and bright with enthusiasm when she talked about her early career as a school teacher and how when she was a child she lined up her "dollies" for a lesson. She was, she said, "tough but fair." I love whatever love there is for tough but fair teachers. Maybe more of that, but we're not in her class, and our responsibilities are to people and things in our own lives, not in keeping track of whatever her various policies and positions are. Warren seems to have the most potential, but she got yoked to Bernie, and the impression from a distance is: 2 radicals who want to make America unrecognizably different. MAUD!

5. The impression of absence: All the governors are gone. ATGAG.

6. Pete Buttigieg has the best voice. He seems like a solid young man. No impression of any substance.

7. Andrew Yang. I kept wanting him to talk more. His father was a peanut farmer. We made some Jimmy Carter jokes. He wasn't wearing a tie, but he had on a shirt that — buttoned on the second button — seemed to be strangling him more than a tie. That's got to be a metaphor for change. It seems like a good idea, making life freer and more pleasurable, but in practice it's constricting and distracting. Yang said something about picking out 10 families to give $1000 a month. Was that an offer to hand out his own money? I don't know. He ought to try to seem less weird, not more weird. Unless that's his goal: to become the most famous weird guy. Sorry, you can't win that prize. The most famous weird guy is Donald Trump.

8. Cory Booker. For a few weeks, I have had a working theory that he is the best of the bunch. But I don't remember anything he said last night. I talked over his opening statement because I was distracted by the tailoring of his suit. The men all wear suits that are utterly neutral, just providing the idealized shape of a man. That shouldn't be a hard mark to hit.

9. Amy was over there in her blocky greenish pantsuit. I remember nothing she said. I want to like her. She's in reserve as a normal person who might be okay. I remember her getting excited while talking. I guess she was hoping to make an impression.

10. Kamala Harris wore a silk shell under her suit jacket. The glossiness caught the light and shadow in a mesmerizing display of undulation. What did she say? I don't know but she said it in that voice that I can easily imitate simply by holding my nose. She seems unsteady, shaky... like that silk shell is a metaphor. I almost feel sorry for her. I don't understand why she's there and I don't believe she understands. Writing that makes me remember something she said: Her mother told her she needs to be her own person and not let anyone else tell her who she is. That's very inward. Running for the presidency is not a journey of self-exploration. But I don't believe that's what she's really doing. I think she's been told — maybe by a hundred or a thousand people — that she's got what it takes to be President and she's accepted their idea of her. That's the opposite of what her mother said.

11. If there was anyone else on the stage, they've slipped my mind. Let me think hard. I think there were 10, and point #5 is about the absence of governors. Who is that mystery man/woman? I'll have to look it up.

12. LOL. I forgot Beto!