McCain/Obama Debate
Tags: ACORN, Democrats, Financial Crisis, John Kerry, Kerry, MSM, New York, poll, Polls, President Bush.
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Well, we’re having a debate after all – in my view, it would have been better had the Democrats allowed partisan considerations to be set aside for a few days while we work out what is best for the financial crisis…but a party which tries to insert money into the bail out package for the voter-fraud group ACORN is not a party which ever puts country first. So, off we go.
Obama’s people have been busily downplaying expectations – expect them, and the MSM and the “instant polls” to go on and on after the debate about how Obama won the debate and did much better than expected. But as in the first debate of 2004, what is said by the spinmeisters isn’t all that important. I remember going on a radio show broadcast in New York City the day after the first debate in 2004 and I was treated to a few minuets of The Nation’s David Corn going on and on about how Kerry had mopped the floor with President Bush. I stoutly asserted that President Bush had won the debate. Why? Because John Kerry had said we needed to have a foreign policy which passed a “global test”. It was my contention that the phrase would work its way into the national consciousness over the following days and no matter what the spin and instant polls said, it will be shown that Kerry did himself irreparable harm by making that statement. And so it proved.
This sort of thing is more McCain’s venue than Obama’s – though McCain would have preferred a more “give and take” event. If McCain makes a serious mistake tonight it will be a heavy blow against his candidacy – if he appears hesitant, or uses non-answers, or comes across as a grumpy old man, etc., then he will damage himself. Not irretrievably (there’s still a lot of time left), but it won’t help him at this juncture with Obama rising a bit in the polls to have anything other than a good performance, and a stellar performance would be best. On the other hand, if Obama comes across as something other than a calm, cool and collected man in full possession of the facts, then he’ll do himself some really serious damage. Obama can’t win the election tonight, but he can to a long way towards losing it if he flubs answers or appears to be out of his depth next to an experienced McCain. Obama blowing it badly won’t be any more the final answer than McCain blowing it badly, but a bad performance by Obama will be a worse thing than a bad performance by McCain as far more people have doubts about Obama’s leadership credentials already, and Obama daren’t give them any more reason to doubt.
Now, I had promised Matt that I would be live-blogging – unfortunately, I suddenly have some personal business to take care of right about debate time (the perils of living in a Pacific Time zone when the action happens on Eastern Time), though I intend to go through it with care post-debate and have my own comments. We’ll see if I, observing after the fact, come to a better understanding of it than the punditry who watch it live. Meanwhile, you, dear readers, have this fine blog entry to put your comments on as it happens.
UPDATE: Ok, so I managed to listen to some of it on the radio and during that was immediately struck by how much Obama stuttered. Made him seem unsure of himself. Then I got home and watched it on TV, where Obama not only stuttered but kept on finger pointing, blame laying, interrupting and generally making an ass out of himself.
I think McCain won this debate.
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117 Responses to “McCain/Obama Debate”
Caucus of Corruption
My staunch Republican wife and I watched it together. We came to the same conclusion that it was a draw.
RS,
Obama has a record of doing the same. It’s a lot short but he has the record non the less.
DL,
Point taken. Glad to see someone else enjoying themselves despite the troubling times. On that note I’m off to the races.
I can’t help but think it’s all pretty academic at this point. Their are so close in the polls they might as well be Siamese twins. Unless there’s a major gaff before the election things will stay pretty much the same opinion wise.
Ask yourself three questions then forecast the probable winner in November. 1. Are Americans really ready to elect a black man President? 2. Will Americans elect a candidate so far to the left of center? 3. Will American be willing to – in this time as we face such great financial and national security threats – elect a man, with under 160 day experience in Senate, to the highest office in the land?
I don’t think so. Obama’s going to lose the bigot vote. He’s going to lose the centerests. He’s going to lose the lions share of those who value experience. I think there are many people in love with the idea of voting for Obama, but it’s one thing to talk about it and quite another to pull that handle in privacy of the voting booth.
I believe, the polls will favor Obama with artificially high numbers right up to and including the time the media reports the exit poll numbers. However, when the votes are counted he’ll lose and it won’t be the razor thin margin of the last two elections. Hillary would handed McCain his head, but Obama’s not up to the task. The Donks have backed the wrong horse.
Casper,
That is rather nail on the head – and we won’t know that for a few days, and that will be greatly influence by how man undecideds tuned in.
I have looked around the web for comments and the best I can find for Obama is that by not being crushed, he wins because he was supposed to be crushed. Most comments seem to be giving it to McCain, and some are in line with my view that McCain won it pretty handily…though, as a partisan my view might not be the best indicator here…on the other hand, the Mrs is a keen judge of these things and as she can’t stand politics, I’ve learned to value her judgment as “Jane Average”, and she’s thinking that Obama looked pretty bad (as an aside, it was the Mrs who first keyed me in to Obama’s real potential…seeing him on Oprah and Ellen and figuring that his looks and charm would go a long way with midwestern housewives).
Spook,
In my view, Obama’s greatest weakness was his clear and repeated attempts to turn the debate towards “don’t you hate President Bush?” as part of a “tie McCain to Bush” gambit…which, on the face of it, seems like smart politics but given the nature of things – and especially the fact that Bush isn’t on the ballot – this tended to make Obama seem a partisan trying to score points while McCain appeared a statesman looking for solutions among all Americans with good will.
McCain seems to have picked up on the growing fact of 2008 that the people – other than the dyed-in-the-wool partisans, left and right, are tired of it – “mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore”, as someone over at, I think, NRO alluded yesterday. Heck, I’m as partisan as they come and I’m sick of it – sick of the endless bickering and gamesmanship. I know where to lay the blame, but I’m less interested – right now – in laying blame than in figuring a way out of this mess…
As a bit of food for thought – my fundamental desire out of this is a breakdown of big things….big government and big corporation must both be tossed on the ash-heap of history. The Founders were wise beyond our reckoning…and as I think about it, I realize that our august Constitution is built to keep things from getting too large and thus unmanageable by regular people living with day to day concerns. Trust busting and shrinking government now become the name of the game, for me…my early solution is to pick out the to 20 publicly traded corporations and set tax law to heavily penalize any corporation which gains a market capitalization of 80% of the average of the 20…sorry, Wal Mart, but you’re out…have to turn yourself in a series of “baby Wal-Marts”.
On the government size of it, outside of defense and law enforcement, I’d find a nice figure and limit the amount an agency of the government can spend to no more than that…no matter what its doing, it can’t go beyond “X” dollars per fiscal year…this way we encourage decentralization of government, just as my tax plan for corporations will decentralize big business (and keep in mind this is all very preliminary in my thinking…I’m just starting to ponder it all).
I think McCain beat Obama…I especially like how McCain really hit ‘er home with the “without pre-conditions” thing … Obama would sit down with terrorist leaders without any plan of sanction against them, especially in regards to Ahmadinejad….and just as Mark has said, Obama would get ‘rolled’ by Ahmadinejad just like Franklin Delano Roosevelt did by Stalin.
So that was a very important point hit home by the elder, and much, much, MUCH wiser Senator McCain.
I really liked the debate throughout, as Sen. McCain did very well and was very decisive in exposing and thereby informing the entire agenda of Mr. Obama for the world to see exactly what, and how important it is, we face.
I must say though, I look super forward to watching next Thursday’s debate! Can’t miss it!
52. neocon | September 26th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Yep they were on sale at Wal-Mart right next to the 4 hour DVDs of all of Sarah Palin’s trips abroad with bonus footage of the view of Russia from her back porch!
Frederick- Did you catch Biden yesterday say that McCain was dead wrong on voting for the Iraw war. You know, the Iraq qar tha Biden himself voted for? What a dumbass.
Wow my keyboard is broken.
Oh ya one more thing. I remember several libs on here ripping Palin for saying Georgia should get into Nato. Obama said last night that georgia and Ukraine should be fast-tracked to membership. I’m expecting a a few mea-culpas on that one.
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/26/debate-video-obama-cant-remember-the-soldiers-name-on-his-bracelet/
This is getting good. In Barack’s me too moment, he had to look at his bracelt because he didn’t remember the soldiers name. What a tool. This video needs to go viral. Can we get a vid of it pn the fron page. Maybe just the last thirty seconds?
“I was under the impression Obama was advocating for low level talks when he was speaking to no pre-conditions.” SAR
There were and are low level talks on going. Its pretty clear he meant he would meet with them without preconditions. The following is the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Oj7Jn9rv4
He only ‘clarified” by back trackng later when he realized what a gaffe this was.
McCain: Ahmanijad– ahmanenedenijad—ahmenidad–Ahmadinejad….
LOLZ
The founder of RedState had this to say.
http://joshuatrevino.com/?p=675
I agree with most, the country is in Dire Need of change. However, I feel that with a country of 300+ million people, we only have 2 lame choices. Thats the really sad part. I wish we could have more choices. Can’t wait to see the Palin-Biden-Debate. I’m sure that one will be good.
I’d really like to see someone pose the question on partial birth abortions tonight. I find this as a form of murder & Obama supports this measure. This has not come up in any debates & yet this is a very important issue for Americans….with or without religion considered.
I wish McCain’s campaign would point out that the Obama campaign has Shepard Fairey, a known copyright violator and petty criminal, as Obama’s official campaign artist. Obama can accept $400,000 raised from Shepard’s Obama prints but he gave donations from another criminal, Rezko, away? What gives and why is the media not onto that!
Shepard Fairey has made a career off of creating art that depicts the White House burning and other situations that are not patriotic. The guy is a left wing wacko. And Obama supports him? Obama actually sent Shepard Fairey an official letter praising his career and supporting the artists practice of placing Obama stickers all over city stop signs. I wonder how many people have died because of that?
Not to mention that street art clean up cost the nation over $15 billion per year! And Obama supports it? Street art can be cool but it cost tax payers a lot of money! But if you point out the Obama / Fairey connection people say you are closedminded. I think spending that money on education is more openminded. Sorry. But Obama supports artists who destroy our city streets?