It’s tradition to end with remarks on how great America is (or at least, the moderators can’t get them to stop doing it :p). Neither of them answered that question, which is too bad, because it’s a good one. On the other hand, Obama’s comment on his mother fighting with the insurance company is one he could get a lot of mileage from. Does he use that one on the stump a lot?
I disagree. I would love to see more wonkiness. But what I have seen too much of lately is blathering on of banalities.
Whether a wonk or a bullshitter, one important thing to remember IMO is make your point and shut up. You don’t have to keep mattering on just because they haven’t cut your mic yet.
I thought Obama was pretty precise on the priories question, the Iraq/Pakistani question and the healthcare question. And then he droned on and on about the intricacies of his originally on point answers.
“That one?”
…Really? “That one?”
No, not necessarily racist, but it doesn’t have to be racist to be dehumanizing. He may have meant “that Senator” but IMO that went below the line of minimal civility. Even ‘the Usual Suspects’ is less dismissive of one’s worth as a person.
This was his response to one of the first questions:
*BROKAW: Senator, we have one minute for a discussion here. Obviously the powers of the treasury secretary have been greatly expanded. The most powerful officer in the cabinet now. Hank Paulson says he won’t stay on. Who do you have in mind to appoint to that very important post?
OBAMA: **Well, Warren would be a pretty good choice – Warren Buffett, and I’m pleased to have his support. But there are other folks out there. The key is making sure that the next treasury secretary understands that it’s not enough just to help those at the top.
Prosperity is not just going to trickle down. We’ve got to help the middle class.**
And we’ve – you know, Senator McCain and I have some fundamental disagreements on the economy, starting with Senator McCain’s statement earlier that he thought the fundamentals of the economy were sound.
Part of the problem here is that for many of you, wages and incomes have flat-lined. For many of you, it is getting harder and harder to save, harder and harder to retire.
And that’s why, for example, on tax policy, what I want to do is provide a middle class tax cut to 95 percent of working Americans, those who are working two jobs, people who are not spending enough time with their kids, because they are struggling to make ends meet.
Senator McCain is right that we’ve got to stabilize housing prices. But underlying that is loss of jobs and loss of income. That’s something that the next treasury secretary is going to have to work on.*
I bolded the portion that could charitably be considered responsive. I did not choose what I considered the worst example - just the first one I noticed as I skimmed the transcript - and this was following the very first question! It did not get any better as the night went on.
Sure, he might have been more responsive to a couple of questions. But on many more occasions, he made a gesture at responding, and then just sequed into a talking point. I understand that is what passes for debate/communication these days. I just wished to see better from a guy I consider so capable.
I heard Obama parrot so many of the contentless and out-of-context stats and soundbites I already know by heart. Made me wonder who they were speaking to - folk who have steadfastly refused to read or listen to anyting about this election yet? Because even the most casual listener would have heard 90% of both guys’ material before last night.
Welp, the bolded part is exactly what I’m talking about too. The question was who would you like to see as treasury secretary and Obama answered “Warren Buffett.” Pretty straightfoward answer. And then he went on and on how this was going to help you, the voter-- explaining his tax plan and the treasury job in getting that done.
He could have just said, “Warren Buffett” and just shut up, I guess.
It was in response to Brokaw’s question about who they have in mind for the Treasury Secretary post. After mentioning Buffet and his work, he turned to Whitman:
“I like Meg Whitman, she knows what it’s like to be out there in the marketplace. She knows how to create jobs. Meg Whitman was CEO of a company that started with 12 people and is now 1.3 million people in America make their living off eBay. Maybe somebody here has done a little business with them.”
I could not watch this debate, but IMO it’s not how the candidates actually performed, it’s how the public perceived them to perform that matters. Any real polls released yet about it?
I only made it through about half of it. I hope somebody has a program they can run it through to compare it to the text of the first debate and weed out how much of it might have actually been original. I have a feeling that 90% of the statements made last night were quoted verbatim from either the first debate or the VP’s. It was immediately apparent in Obama’s first answer. It sounded like the very same words that he opened the first debate with. What’s the point of these things!? Oh yeah, McCain needs some time to personally insult Obama to his face…
I stopped after “Should healthcare be a commodity?” because it occurred to me that I am simply in the wrong country. McCain’s answer was a stump speech that translated to a Yes, and Obama’s was pretty much just the stump speech. I guess it was a Yes, too. Obviously America can’t just flip a switch and decide No on that one. That was the point made on me; that this country is never going to get to where I’d want it to be.
CNN’s poll shows an Obama victory by a pretty substantial margin. (54-30%, with 16% tie.) I think people really are responding to the candidates themselves. In content, I thought they performed pretty equally (though I agree with Obama far more than McCain). I think that Obama looked at ease and confident, while McCain sounded paternalistic and a little trite. I think that’s where McCain lost this debate.
SNL could have some fun with the breathing thing, and the age thing, “Barack, I am your father.”
We’ll get there, but only when it gets so bad that NOT supporting true single-payer universal healthcare is a campaign-killer. Don’t blame the politicians, blame the people. The majority of the population is still convinced that “socialized medicine” is a horrible, inefficient, non-workable program that’s making Europe into a hellhole of medical nightmares. None of which is true, but remember that we’re a population that, in general, can’t find Iraq (a country that’s been very central to our national mentality for the last 5 years) on an unmarked map. People believe what they’re told and think their personal healthcare troubles are anomalies rather than across-the-board failures of the current system.
Until the word starts to get around that things are broken and gets around in a big way, universal healthcare isn’t going to happen. I give it another 10 years.
I noticed this immediately. Tom Brokaw was trying to talk to these guys and McCain was totally engrossed in his non-stop scribbling, in fact he didn’t stop scribbling until Brokaw said “The fist question is coming from Section X” and McCain immediately looked up and around like the kid in the back of the class that got called on but did not hear what the teacher asked. Brokaw was trying to look at them both while he was talking but could only focus on Obama because he was the only one paying attention to him. I thought that was really sucky.
McCain walks into a smackdown.
40-second mark is when it gets good.
Question: Why did McCain think that that moment was a good time to chuckle and “thank” his opponent in a horribly sarcastic manner? My guess is that he’s so used to playing to friendly crowds that he’s actually forgotten how to behave professionally with a crowd that may not appreciate his snarky humor at the expense of his oppponent. And he got rightfully owned.
The only thing I want to add is that I wish that the picture in that clip was clearer, just so I can see with precision the exact moment his smug smirk gets wiped off his face and his little heart withers within his chest.
I thought it was a gaffe because he was praising Meg Whitman for building up eBay into such a successful business when that very morning’s headlines announced that eBay was having to lay off 10% of its workforce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAyK-enrF1g Heres a utube on McCain’s famous temper. He is a spoiled child ,proving they come in all ages.
I made an “I’m voting for that one” bumper sticker for my car on CafePress. Should be here tomorrow - I can’t wait.
If his opponent was white, the comment wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. We have a history in this country of being dismissive, rude, and condescending to both minorities and women who have the temerity to try to rise above “their place”. In that context, I believe the remark can be properly construed as racist or bigoted, and a reflection of McCain’s generational thinking, whether it was intended that way or not. At the very least, it points out the disconnect that McCain has with his own countrymen. I don’t believe for a second that he meant to say “that senator”, but rather was trying to belittle his opponent and to deliberately cast him in the light of being a non-person.
Huh. I have to squint real hard to see it as being racist in any way. It was clearly supposed to be dismissive of Obama’s position (and failed miserably, like all of the rest of McCain’s attempts at humor), but I don’t think it was supposed to be dismissive of Obama’s race.
Actually, I felt more insulted by McCain’s tone during that segment. I’m not eight years old- don’t talk down to me.