I’m watching the presidential debate, after it has completed, on MSNBC’s website right now. It’s worth watching. There are many reactions to it, and in fact I have my own, but you know what, they don’t matter. I think McCain did excellently on national security and pork/earmarks, which are the two issues I care most about, and that Obama is an economic populist, and came off as such – but that doesn’t matter. I’m sure the right think McCain did better, and the left that Obama did better. Honestly, both politicians have plenty of points to back themselves up with, and many of them, on both sides, are true. How can people choose between the two? All I can hope for is that the American people, as an electorate, are not as apathetic and naive as they are constantly portrayed. One candidate, while not perfect, has a clear record of fighting for pork, and standing up, in a bi-partisan matter, for the issues he believes in, especially national security, freedom, and America’s honor around the world. The other talks the talk, but has a record of extreme liberalism (opposed to the general views of our country), dubious ties to a corrupt political machine, and all of the typical hallmarks of a typical politician willing to say whatever is popular, but do whatever he wants to achieve power. While plenty of misinformation exists on the internet, so does the truth, and I believe that it shines with a special sparkle.
Honestly these debates, while amusing, really aren’t what we should be deciding our presidents on. It’s not even a mature debate format, although I must admit that this first debate was more mature than I expected. I cannot encourage voters (and potential voters) enough: research the candidates, read up on the candidate’s views, their critics, and their critics critics. Research issues until you get down to the source level, where you can see for yourself who’s been part of what bills, and the full conversations of every comment said. That is what really determines who stands for what.
Kudos to Obama for keeping his “uh” count down. I wasn’t expecting that.
McCain started off in the muck: he invoked Ted Kennedy in the most egregious and blatantly canny attempt to drag the viewers by the heart into his camp.
McCain went on like a kicked dog through the rest of the debate, fearful of ever looking Obama in the face, even as Obama directed his comments straight at him. Never once did McCain direct a comment at Obama.
In every question, McCain seemed to get more flustered, and was even making sniffing sounds like he was ill near the end of the debate. Obama’s demeanor was always prim, calm, and intelligent. McCain’s was confused, ill-equipped, and angry.
Barack Obama won this first debate handily.
See, I view things pretty differently. I think McCain did a good job of demonstrating his bi-partisan record, starting with the Ted Kennedy comment. I can’t decide if I liked McCain’s tactic of speaking to the audience, or Obama’s tactic of speaking to McCain better.
I don’t think McCain was the one that got flustered: McCain managed to provide a lot more specifics that showed his knowledge and experience much better and kept Obama off balance, but I’ll admit Obama did a good job of keeping his uh count down, and generally not looking as poor as he usually does without a teleprompter.
I would give this debate to McCain, but only slightly, and only because he seemed to have a lot more details nailed down than Obama. Other than that, I think people of either party will be able to point out issues that they think their candidate did better in.
If I was going to include knowledge that I know only from research, than I would give the debate solidly to McCain, but I’m assuming people know nothing other than what the candidates mentioned themselves in the debate.
Hey – thanks for the link. I find it fascinating how different people see such different things. I really thought McCain had the clear edge but this morning I’m reading a lot of folks who think like Sheila.
I commend you for attempting to watch as if you knew nothing previous to last night concerning these men.
I know there were a lot more points I would have argued that I thought were more meaningful/important. (for both sides)
I was surprised at how much Obama interrupted McCain.
Otherwise, the debate was pretty boring to someone who has followed the campaigns quite intently for a while. Nothing new said.