After just writing a post explaining why I don't watch television, now it's time for a true confession.

I watched the Republican presidential, um, debate.

At least, that's what they said it was. I tried to watch it out of a strange sense of nagging "duty" -- as I thought that I might be morally obliged to keep "in touch."

Keep in touch with what? With the reality of television? It wasn't a debate at all; merely an exercise in how a candidate might look on TV, and many factoids he could cram into a thirty second sound byte before Chris Matthews hit the switch.

The problem is, there's no denying that these are presidential skills. How the president does on television is probably more important than how the president does.

It sickens me, but it's undeniable reality.

But I could have skipped the whole thing, because Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of reaction, and if I clicked and read each one of the links, I could learn more about the debate than I did by watching it.

I might as well disclose my reaction to watching it, which is a judgment simply on the two skills I mentioned.

Romney, McCain, Giuliani and Hunter stood out as the most talented sound-byte packagers. Ironically, McCain and Giuliani did the two best jobs of looking mortally wounded by being cut off, which is a good tactic by way of causing the viewers to think they had much more to say than could possibly be jammed into the arbitrary-but-fair time allotments. Romney and Hunter looked rested and ready, and as masters of the medium, with the former looking as ready for TV prime time as it's possible to be, and the latter looking like a real gladiator. (I'm not as much of a hardliner on the border issue as Hunter and Tancredo, but if you are, I'd say Hunter looks more like the real border warrior. Very impressive.)

As to being a factor in deciding whom I'll vote for, the debate was utterly meaningless. (I'm torn between Giuliani and Fred Thompson, who wasn't there, and a lot will turn on the entry of Gingrich, for whom I don't plan to vote.)

But then again, I might switch parties so I can be a DINO against Hillary as I once was years ago.

(It's almost as easy as switching from Fox to CNN with a remote.)

MORE: Pajamas Media has a great roundup of reactions, and my favorite was Roger L. Simon's:

"The big winner of the first Republican presidential debate was the man who wasn't there: Fred Thompson. Although I admire Giuliani and agree with him on most issues, the presidential look and feel of the absent Fred loomed over this boring event with only Ron Paul for comic relief."