Dr. Josephson's diagnosis:Hand motions:
- McCain: “McCain is over and over again doing this karate chop thing on the table —it’s aggression 101. He does a lot of frowning, sneering, a little fist action, some pointing.”
- Obama: “Generally when you have the open arms or upward and outward arm motions, it speaks to openness, positive, approachable.”
On teeth:
- Showing teeth contributed to McCain’s seeming aggression. McCain's fake smiles and sneers could predict what kind of person he is. (There are are books of people smiling, and the ones that have genuine smiles will end up married and happy 25 years later, and that the ones who are sneering end up divorced and miserable.)
McCain’s schnoz:
- “McCain did touch his nose a couple times, which it could be an itchy nose or it could be what they call a tell —a touch of deception...If you were a gambler you’d take note of it for sure.”
On the moderator:
- “Schieffer is good and very planted in his questions. And he nailed them and they’re both pretty comfortable and adroit at avoiding any embarrassment whatsoever. They’re master spin doctors.” “They’re both lying bastards.”
Dr. Pennebaker’s diagnosis:
On connection with the audience:
- “McCain is generally more personal in his language than is Obama. McCain connects more with the interviewer like Schieffer, he connects with other people more than Obama does. Obama is cool, he’s more detached; he’s not as socially connected.”
On thought process:
- McCain thinks in categories (nouns), Obama thinks in perspectives (verbs):
“McCain looks at a problem and categorizes it. Obama looks at the same problem and looks at how is this event changing over time, how is it connected to other ideas. You can see this in how they talk.”
This means Obama is more cognitively complex. “Cognitively complex means that a person is looking at an idea and making distinctions with it —what’s in this category, what’s not in this category —making finer grain distinctions.”
On verb tense:
- “In terms of orientation, McCain is focusing more on, in terms of verb tense, interestingly he talks more about the past and more about the future —he always uses more future tense.” By contrast, “Obama always uses more present tense and talks about what is happening here and now.”
Check out other opinions on the debate from The Daily Beast team.