The Debate
Oct. 8th, 2008 03:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smofbabeEven the Fox News focus group is calling it for Obama.
I personally am starting to really wonder about McCain's health after seeing this debate. Considering this is a format that he supposedly excels at, I thought he was really off tonight. He fumbled some of his answers, made some really lame jokes (mentioning hair transplants during a discussion of health care, for example -- huh?), and didn't seem relaxed at all. On the question of setting priorities, he said "We are not rifle-shots here - we are Americans" -- another "huh?" moment. Also, this is not the first time I've heard McCain claim that he will definitely get bin Laden and that he knows how to do that. If he really does know how (and he's never provided specifics), why hasn't he told the Bush administration? As in the first debate, he barely looked at Obama although Obama was clearly paying attention to him when he spoke. McCain's handlers are also probably going to kill him for again using the derided phrase "my friends."
I thought Obama did really well: he seemed relaxed, he provided specifics without sounding like he was giving a lecture, and even his attacks were pretty polite. The fact that he called health care "a right" rather than McCain's "responsibility" answer I think will play well with undecided voters. I also liked his response to McCain's claim, which he had made in the first debate too, that Obama "doesn't understand": ""It's true, there are some things I don't understand. I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, while Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us." They'd obviously planned that answer in advance but he pulled it out at the perfect time and delivered it well.
I was relieved that the slimy personal attacks that have been in the news in the past 36 hours did not affect the debate, although McCain calling Obama "that one" is probably going to be the headline sound bite. I was also pleased that Brokaw was willing to break (or couldn't stop the candidates, at least, from breaking) the rules a couple of times and let them do follow-up answers.
Finally, I wonder whether Obama's doing the meet-and-greet of the audience of undecideds after the debate for about 15 minutes longer than McCain did will have any effect on their votes :->
[Update - Clips from the debate by topic are available at Politico.]
I personally am starting to really wonder about McCain's health after seeing this debate. Considering this is a format that he supposedly excels at, I thought he was really off tonight. He fumbled some of his answers, made some really lame jokes (mentioning hair transplants during a discussion of health care, for example -- huh?), and didn't seem relaxed at all. On the question of setting priorities, he said "We are not rifle-shots here - we are Americans" -- another "huh?" moment. Also, this is not the first time I've heard McCain claim that he will definitely get bin Laden and that he knows how to do that. If he really does know how (and he's never provided specifics), why hasn't he told the Bush administration? As in the first debate, he barely looked at Obama although Obama was clearly paying attention to him when he spoke. McCain's handlers are also probably going to kill him for again using the derided phrase "my friends."
I thought Obama did really well: he seemed relaxed, he provided specifics without sounding like he was giving a lecture, and even his attacks were pretty polite. The fact that he called health care "a right" rather than McCain's "responsibility" answer I think will play well with undecided voters. I also liked his response to McCain's claim, which he had made in the first debate too, that Obama "doesn't understand": ""It's true, there are some things I don't understand. I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, while Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us." They'd obviously planned that answer in advance but he pulled it out at the perfect time and delivered it well.
I was relieved that the slimy personal attacks that have been in the news in the past 36 hours did not affect the debate, although McCain calling Obama "that one" is probably going to be the headline sound bite. I was also pleased that Brokaw was willing to break (or couldn't stop the candidates, at least, from breaking) the rules a couple of times and let them do follow-up answers.
Finally, I wonder whether Obama's doing the meet-and-greet of the audience of undecideds after the debate for about 15 minutes longer than McCain did will have any effect on their votes :->
[Update - Clips from the debate by topic are available at Politico.]
