McCain came into this debate in his preferred format and needed to knock one out of the park.
He didn’t.
Frankly, he came across as even more of a condescending jerk this time than last. “That one,” wandering aimlessly around on the stage, “my friends,” baring his teeth (was he trying to smile? hard to tell), still failing utterly to address Obama with any kind of directness or respect, trying to hammer Obama on long discredited attack points, jokes that fell totally flat.
Not good. Not good, at all.
Unlike the first debate, which to me felt like something of a tie, I thought Obama came off way better than McCain in this one. That’s especially bad since McCain needed the win, and this is supposedly the format he excels in. He sure didn’t excel tonight.
Obama was a bit flat, but I thought did marginally better at actually answering questions, which is not saying a lot. I thought he was solid on foreign policy, a bit too vague on some economic questions, and did much better on anything touching health care. Once again, he comes across has having substance behind his positions. He answered the “empty suit” criticism pretty well in this and the last debate, especially considering that this was a format he was not expected to feel comfortable in.
I’m giving this one solidly to Obama. I suspect polls are going to show again that undecided voters thought Obama won this debate.
I took a quick tour of some prominent conservative blogs, and many are giving the debate to Obama (or to McCain, but not by enough to really matter). Many commenters are upset by the bailout expansion McCain proposed, and some supporters are shaking their heads that McCain didn’t follow through on the aggressiveness he and his campaign have proposed and executed in the past few days.
Sorry if this was brought up before, but it’s late and I don’t want to have NO sleep tonight…
What’s up with those Manchurian Independents (for lack of a better term) from Ohio CNN had? They asked them a few questions about different parts of the debate, including who they thought did better, etc. Their votes seemed to be in line with what the instapolls were saying (Obama has the edge), then they asked them who’d they be voting for, and most of them said McCain. :smack:
I still have in the back of my mind the same sort of thing that Carville brought up: If Obama has a 5 point lead on November 3, and we wake up on the 5th with McCain the winner, WTF is going to happen?
Watching it and understanding it are two different things. (Alan Colmes should start wearing lipstick, a skirt and a Hooters blouse to look more like the little prison bitch he is; I can sorta kinda semi understand working for a company that trades you a truck load of money for your self-respect- I’d like to say I wouldn’t do it, but I’ve never had the offer- but you’d think what’d you’d do in that case is save the money for a few years then quit.)
I won’t call a winner until FactCheck and other objective sites review factual statements, but I will say Obama seemed a lot more confident and at ease this time than last. I find that ironic considering that McCain wanted more Town Hall format debates. One thing I think McCain, Obama and America agree on is “no more Brokaw”. Which is surprising, really, as he’s the “boring but respected uncle” of American newscasting.
McCain blew it in two big areas tonight from where I sit (a liberal surrounded by Republicans).
He wants to halt spending… aside from another 300 billion to buy up mortgages?
He didn’t mention Ayers/Wright/Whoever the hell else. C’mon, John - either “that one” is fit to lead or he isn’t. If he lets his attack dog with lipstick do all the attacking, yet won’t do it himself, he’s telling me that either he doesn’t agree with what his campaign is doing, or he’s a wuss. He doesn’t strike me as a wuss, so maybe he should tell Palin to STFU if he isn’t on board with the strategy.
Jeezus H Christ – GHW Bush raised taxes during his administration, breaking a campaign pledge (“read my lips!”), which coincided with an economic downturn. Hoover, indeed! Or Clinton, for that matter.
One other thing I’ve noticed, in both the first debate and this one: Every time that McCain talks about himself “reaching across the aisle”, he gestures away from Obama. I was sort of half-willing to write it off after the first one: Maybe one of his war injuries makes it easier to make that gesture with the other hand. But this time, they were on opposite sides of the stage from the first one, and McCain still gestured away when he said it.
I think the eBay gaffe will be the most talked about tomorrow because it shows “out of touch” and “don’t you read the headlines?” and bad judgment all rolled into one.
T-shirt idea: The Obama logo with “That One '08” printed below it.
My favorite part of the debate: Obama is talking about McCain calling him green, and McCain is so somber and serious. McCain stands up, reacts with an awkward laugh and “Thank you!” and chuckles while looking around the audience with a “Such flattery from this guy!”-look on his face. Obama then procedes to finish his thought with “This is the guy who sang, ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,’ who called for the annihilation of North Korea.”
The look on McCain’s face as he realized he just got set up and owned was priceless! (If anyone can point me to a video link to this exchange, I may just spend the day tomorrow wathcing it over and over and over.)
What do you mean? Was McCain being serious when he suggested someone there had maybe done a little business on eBay? (I didn’t watch the debate, but I did watch this thread and the ones on Daily Kos.)
