Open Thread: The Debate
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Grumpy old men, elitist liberals, foreign policy, health care, town-hall formats and incredibly dumb and predictable questions from "undecided" voters.
Oh, and "That One."
Have at it (in the comments section). I'm too lazy to put together anything more than an open-thread debate on the debate.
Blah blah blah.
Morans.
5 comments:
I am confident the "That one." comment was due to McCain stumbling over his words, but I still gotta ask: That one, what?
Yeah, well, worst stumble ever. If your brain goes that way, what do you really mean?
Obama's answer to the "what would you do if Iran attacked Israel" question was lovely. I was a big fan of that answer.
Also, regarding the hand-selected audience: I have never seen a group of people stumble so hard asking their own fucking question off of a card right in front of them. Seriously, Tennessee.
On last week's SNL News, Amy Poehler, in commenting on who won the VP debate, said it was "whoever you liked in the first place" (or something to that effect). Of course, both camps are saying they won the debate. Various pundits and bloggers from both sides are saying how _______ destroyed _________. I think people see what they want to see.
I don't know if it is possible to objectively analyze the debate, but here goes:
-Tom Brokaw did a lousy job. I like Brokaw, but he just seemed too chummy with both of them. "Now Senator, let me remind you for the 15th time about our time limit (chuckle)." He should have made more of an effort to leep them on time. Gwen Ifill at least pointed out when they didn't answer the question. They shouldn't have been allowed to regurgitate their talking points.
I thought both of them did a decent job addressing the audience and each other. Both moved around the room and seemed comfortable. McCain seemed a little more 'ornery', but he didn't act as tempermental as some have suggested he is.
Both did a decent job of including content, overall. In some areas, McCain did better, in some, Obama did better. Many of the people interviewed after the debate named a winner, but didn't say that either of them had a resounding victory. I would agree.
I'll let my bias take center stage now. One of the issues that is very important to me is foreign policy. In that portion of the debate, Obama clearly won. His ideas were far more detailed and made more sense. McCain was vague and seemed like he was struggling.
One of the issues that is very important to me is foreign policy. In that portion of the debate, Obama clearly won. His ideas were far more detailed and made more sense. McCain was vague and seemed like he was struggling.
I was surprised by that as well. Part of it was that McCain has trouble shifting gears, whereas Mr. Obama does not have that trouble.
On that topic, I wonder if Obama intentionally worked to rile McCain up early in the debate. They were both loud and accusatory in the first 20 minutes, but at some point Obama downshifted into neutral. McCain couldn't hit the brakes, and ended up coming off as the angry old man. A reverse rope-a-dope, if you will...
And if that was the case, Obama pulled it off quite well.
I agree BMac, I think McCain was maybe told to tone down a bit of the attacks and Obama just poked the bear. Figuring eventually the bear would wake up and show its true temperment. If so, it did work, McCain came off at times as flustered and ornery instead of passionate about the issues.
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