<<Yup, no extended debates in any of the 57 states...>>
I'm down wid dat. I think most people will figure out that Obama really knows how many states there are and somehow just mis-spoke himself. Everything else he says sounds on the ball, hip and contemporary. You've got to be really dumb to think there are 57 states, and nothing else about Obama appears to be even remotely dumb.
McCain isn't so fortunate. His repeated references to "Czechoslovakia" are explained as force of habit, but that's an old man's excuse. His mind is too tired and dug in to change with the times, habit takes over from thought, and so the Czech Republic is still "Czechoslovakia" in John Insane's mind, regardless of how long ago the break-up occurred. That's better than thinking he's dumb, but it's still not too impressive to voters looking for someone who may hold their lives in his hands.
The Pakistan-Iraq "border" is on a whole different order of magnitude. This betrays real ignorance of the basic issues and shows a guy who is just firing from the hip, speaking by rote and getting his Iraq - Afghanistan cues mixed up. He either doesn't know, gets tired and confused even in a friendly environment or just doesn't give a shit. None of them qualities sought in an applicant for the job as President and Commander in Chief.