September 26, 2008

McCain Wins

Here's McCain putting on a class for Senator Obama's benefit.

Overall, Obama looked way too defensive... and he spent his time reliving Al Gore's 2000 debate performance wincing, sighing laughing and interrupting.

By contrast, Senator McCain was calm and collected.

Best line... "... and I didn't even have a seal."

... at one point Obama threw up a white flag... "let's move on."

2008 Posted by AlexC at September 26, 2008 10:41 PM

Eh. I don't think McCain did nearly as well as he could have. He had an annoying habit of not actually answering the question asked of him- sure, the points he made were always spot on, but they didn't answer the questions he was asked.

~T. Greer, with the opinion that McCain's imaginary conversation vetween Obama and Ahmenidijehad was the best part of the night.

Posted by: T. Greer at September 26, 2008 10:51 PM

I fell into some tickets for the first night of a three day jazz festival and the debates are waiting for me on my beloved TiVo. I saw the last half hour between sets, then the first half hour when FOXNews reran it. I watched the commentary before the debate, which I usually avoid.

But I am preliminarily pitching in with blog brother ac on this. What I saw made me think of VP Gore -- a lot of eye rolling and sighing (I was waiting for him to ask "What about Diiiiingle-Noooooorwood???")

He was certainly not as bad as VP Gore, but because his candidacy is based so much on personality, I did not the new hopeful change guy. Maybe that's in the middle.

Posted by: jk at September 27, 2008 11:54 AM

Sen. Obama has generally better substance than Sen. McCain, but he fell short yesterday. He seemed to be stuck in the past and/or defending himself against McCain disingenious attacks. He seemed to be talking more to his base than to the un-committed.

To TG's point about McCain's annoying habbit of not directly answering the question - that is irrelevant. What people remember of the debate are his crisp answers.

Sen. Obama is a known quick learner. Look forward to him running over McCain the next time.

At the end of the day what matters is any shift in opinions in the battle ground states. After this debate, if there is no downward trend, then it is a good thing.

Posted by: Heretic at September 27, 2008 1:05 PM

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. "Senator Obama has generally better substance than Senator McCain...?"

You mean, organizing an inner city precinct to vote for a particular collectivist candidate for a few elections is more sustantial than introducing, co-sponsoring and critically negotiating legislation in the US Senate for over two decades?

Or, posturing that the war in Iraq must be "ended swiftly and responsibly" (whatever that means to whoever hears it) is substantively better than tirelessly opposing "stay the course" voices in his own party and "surrender" advocates in the other to give our proud and capable military the tactical orders to win the war instead of merely defending their bases while Iraqi parlimentarians dithered?

Perhaps there is more substance in the class-warfare rhetoric that "95% of Americans will receive a tax cut" while nearly half of that group, a record 41% of Americans, already paid zero federal income tax in 2006 amounting to even greater transfer payments from Americans who earn wealth to those who did nothing to earn it beyond casting votes for their friendly neighborhood Democrats.

Is there more substance of leadership for a politician who personally inserted congressional earmark spending of nearly one-billion-dollars (with a B) in his scant few years in office compared to one who promises, if elected president, to "name names" of earmark abusers and "make them famous?"

I certainly can't imagine any serious individual believing a young man who enlists for military service during wartime, displays super-human abilities to defy torture meted out to him by propagandist captors, and remains loyal to the flag and fellow soldiers of his country is somehow bested in a measure of "substance" by another young man who, during roughly the same phase of his own life, was an enthusiastic user of cocaine and marijuana (and who knows what else that he hasn't actually admitted to) in order to cope with the personal adversity of growing up in a Hawaiian paradise and grappling with the tremendous challenge of discovering "who I was."

Obama has generally better substance than McCain? Objectively speaking, I disagree.

Posted by: johngalt at September 28, 2008 5:29 PM | What do you think? [4]