First things first - the drinking game was a success :) I'll be refining it for the third and final one next week (when Obama says "Pahkistaaaan" is a front-runner).
Now to the debate:I first want to explain how much I dislike the format. It's not a real town hall - although the questions were fine - you really don't learn much. It's 2min with a 1min rebuttal and NO FOLLOW-UPS. So essentially the candidates just have enough time to cram in their TPs and message ... and anything misleading or wrong they say can't be challenged by the moderator. Lehrer, Ifill and Browkaw all know their stuff and could have really added something to the debates by calling them out when they stray and making them keep to reality instead of their campaign message.
I think McCain started off strong and Obama a little weak. McCain started off on the attack - but Obama sort of brushed it off. Early on Obama actually answered the questions (except when he rebutted McCain's tax lies and then McCain said he'd be the one to actually answer the questions) - while McCain started out mostly going back to talking points. I listened to the economic crisis bit on the radio so I didn't see McCain answer the question ... but on replay I think the fact that McCain told a young black guy "you've probably never heard of Freddie Mac and Fannie May before" won't come off so well.
I give McCain a lot of credit for not going as negative as the rest of his campaign - and I think that's a credit to McCain - he will certainly mischaracterize a record - but its not in him to really venture into the gutter.
The time when the momentum swung to Obama - in my view - was when Obama answered the question about whether health care was a right ... and then talked about his mom dying of cancer. From there, Obama gained momentum and did a great job talking about the middle class and foreign policy.
Then - at the end of the debate, McCain darted out and Obama and Michelle stayed for 15 minutes and took pictures and signed autographs for the Navy vet and almost everyone who was there ... he looked a lot more comfortable with the regular folks.
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2 comments:
$20 says McCain was throwing folding chairs in the basement while Barack and Michelle were shaking hands with the folks.
bg -
i agree with most of this post. but..
the part about giving mccain credit for not going in the gutter i think is wrong. in fact, i think the opposite. i think we all knew he wouldn't go there going into the debate. clearly going negative is part of an overall campaign decision that has been made. it's not like palin decides by herself what goes into her stump speeches. if mccain is willing to sign off on this type of attacks for his surrogates, why isn't he big enough to say it is legitimate by himself? to me, his refusal to spout out the talking points himself, but his campaigns insistence that palin and his surrogates repeat them is a tacit concession that these are low blows. if mccain doesn't feel that these attacks are worthy of him or a national stage like the debate, he should tell his campaign to stop them altogether. if he feels they are legit, then he should tell the entire country how he feels. i don't think it's big of him to shy away from these accusations in the debate. either embrace them or denounce them. can't have it both ways...
tom b
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