Taken altogether, I can't imagine too many minds were made up by the debate last night. I wouldn't say it was boring, but it certainly was even, and contained no shockers. I heard one pundit opine that Obama had succeeded in making his case for commander and chief, and McCain had successfully made his case against Obama as president.

I remain unsatisfied with the candidates' energy discussions, and Obama added another burr last night, when Jim Lehrer pressed both candidates on the initiatives they might have to forego or delay as the result of the financial bailout.

I don't recall McCain ever answering, and I only recall one detail that Obama coughed up: He might have to downshift on energy research.

Meanwhile, they both proclaimed their love for nuclear power, although McCain did mock Obama for being for it except for the storage and reprocessing issues, which are, of course, unsolved after decades of trying. I know McCain tossed in "clean coal" in his litany of the things that "of course" we need; I'm not sure if Obama did too, but I know he was for FutureGen, the "clean coal" project that was awarded to Mattoon, Ill., until the Bush administration pulled the plug on it.

There was not a lot for a renewable energy partisan to be excited about.