Debate Impression

Going into the debates, I was wondering whether Obama would be on his best game.  I’m seen him give fantastic speeches from the telepromter, but off the cuff he’s always seemed to be at somehwat of a disability.  I didn’t see any of that tonight.  Both candidates did very well, I thought.  I didn’t think there was a clear winner.  Obama seems to have tacked a good bit close to the center than he was during the primary, for instance he’s now supporting missile defense, when before he was against it.  But Obama came off well, and I didn’t think McCain came off as a slouch either.  One thing I did notice watching CNNs coverage is that independents seem to track closer to Republicans most of the time, in their reaction.

I have to wonder whether Obama’s move to the middle is pissing off a lot of his base.  I mean, I didn’t get the impression Obama was any hippy flower wearing peacenik when it comes to foreign policy.  He is definitely a man of the left, but he plays the role of a moderate very well.

13 thoughts on “Debate Impression”

  1. I didn’t see it – I was working – but I heard that McCain had chances to finish Obama off and never took them. I buy that, because McCain has always tried to take the high road.

    Personally, I think he can take the high road AFTER his wins the election. If he does.

  2. Looked like a tie, to me. I expected Obama to do much worse without a teleprompter, but he HAS done about twice as many national debates as McCain. In light of the Constitution, I don’t like either candidate, I just like Obama less.

  3. I thought most of the debate was a tie up until the end when I think Obama’s naivety showed through. Obama tended to really lose his grip on foreign policy issues (Pakistan is a good example) and started to appear as if he didn’t understand fully what the issues were about. His attempts to go to the right of McCain on the issues dealing with Pakistan and terrorism made him look reckless. Overall, I really didn’t detect much weakness from McCain at all which I feared, but saw a resolute firmness which had been missing from him from most of the campaign.

    McCain did a masterful end run around Obama by pushing spending cuts and a spending freeze. I think that nullified the effectiveness of Obama’s promises of government health care and entitlement expansion. Obama without the ability to promise the moon and stars left him without much to offer. McCain did this with other issues as well making Obama frustrated and flustered.

    Overall, I thought that both candidates presented their cases very well, but I thought Obama showed the most weakness.

  4. I believe McCain was way to reserved. He showed very little fire-in-the-belly or passion. Unless McCain wakes up he is going to blow this election – our only hope is that Sara comes to the rescue.

    As usual B**k-Wh**t was allowed to spin his half-truths without being taken to task.

    I’ll discuss the so called bail out later – I am too much in a bad mood

  5. The missile defense system is probably in the category of “what would you give up to cover the $700b bailout”. But he is too much of a coward to say that.

    I think overall it was a tie, but McCain won on some important points. But I also agree I didn’t expect Obama to perform so well. The biggest thing that got me though was how Obama kept attacking Bush, and McCain pretty much ignored it. When Obama kept insisting on discussing Bush’s mistakes, McCain only corrected him once… “as president, we won’t be deciding how we go in to Iraq, but how we leave.” He didn’t bother getting involved in Obama’s blame-game.

  6. I’m no fan of Obama, but I wonder if you guys actually believe this or are you trying to convince yourselves? Politically, McCain needed a win to win, and Obama needed a tie to win, especially with non-base voters. And that’s what happened. Almost every tracker/snap poll out today has higher favorability swings among independents towards Obama from pre- to post debate. That’s not good. This past week has been a friggin fiasco.

    It seems like instead of doing the critical thinking to win, we’re standing here patting ourselves on the back. for holding on and even being a little better in the debate itself. I’m beginning to think that even if McCain is a better debater, Obama and his staff seems to understand what sticks in voters minds better. The former may have substance, and the latter may be fleeting, but with 38 days left, fleeting in politics may just win the White House. McCain needs to hit harder/faster/better because all Obama has to do is tie McCain to Bush over the last eight years. If he can do that successfully, I think he’ll win. If McCain can push the onus onto Obama, McCain can win. What I saw last night was Obama tying McCain to Bush, even if McCain tried to move beyond that fairly well.

    McCain needs to hit harder and fight better, because I like my sweet AR-15 that I just spent 18 months building. I’m beginning to think that I need to go buy a bunch of PMags and maybe a a new G17 before January 20. I’m amazed you guys don’t seem more worried.

  7. re: Obama’s move to the center and his base’s reaction. Those on the left who are deep in the bag for Obama will merely nudge oneanother and *wink*, *wink* snigger that he’s just saying that to garner more votes. And it will work because the MSM won’t point out the difference in his words now from his words/positoin then.

  8. Obama seems to have tacked a good bit close to the center than he was during the primary, for instance he’s now supporting missile defense, when before he was against it.

    As Melvin McDowell aptly notes, he’s lying about supporting missile defense.

    I’d like to think I’m prudently concerned, noops — but there are some things y’just don’t advertise. ;-)

    III

  9. “He’s definitely a man of the left, but he PLAYS THE ROLE of a moderate very well.”

    Plays the role.

    Remember that.

  10. I’m just glad my sister watched the debates. She was pro-Obama … and then she saw the debates and realized he knows “NOTHING” about foreign policy in comparison to McCain. It made me happy.

  11. Unfortunately, McCain looked awfull. You had to LISTEN to the debates to realize that he has some idea of what he’s talking about.

    But, he missed so many opportunities to hit back, and just stook there while Obama made this election to be a debate about whether going to war in 2003 was the right decission.

    For God’s sake McCain, tell Obama that even Hillary and Biden voted FOR the war so if Obamas (who wasn’t even in the Senate in 2003) got a problem with it talk to them.

    McCain’s got to take it to Obama or we’re going to lose this. Not that I think McCain is by any stretch perfect but Obama is an absolutly SCARY proposition!

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