First McCain-Obama Debate: First Impressions
Cats: Politics, TV|
My wife and I laid the baby to bed, sat down with a bottle of Barefoot wine and some Niederegger’s marzipan, and watched tonight’s presidential debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. Here are my impressions, in no particular order, while watching the debate:
- On the current economic crisis, both candidates had well-crafted responses, but they didn’t really say anything new or insightful. This didn’t change anyone’s minds about anything. My wife actually went to bed at this point.
- Both candidates appeared to be on their A game tonight. McCain especially seemed quite prepared to battle Obama and tear him a new one, especially when discussing the Iraq war. Whether he actually did that is still up to the spinmeisters, but…
- Obama I think is trying to explain things, but they’re not coming out well. McCain’s attacks hit their mark hard.
- Obama had a few moments there where he was trying to set the record straight but was interrupting McCain’s statement, and it just wasn’t the way to go, in my opinion.
- Kudos to Jim Lehrer on a well-crafted debate. Instead of constantly saying ‘Time!’ to grown men as other moderators have, he outright encouraged them to create a dialogue. This is good debate & good television.
- Discussing Afghanistan & ‘Pockkistan’ now. I’d say this was a draw.
- McCain bringing up a lot of history, which he was present for. In some respects, this was a plus: ‘I have a record on national security issues.’ In other respects, bringing up Eisenhower’s D-Day letters leads the listener to ask whether McCain was present at D-Day. Good discussion by McCain of the families of service members talking to him…that was good.
- Obama: ‘No soldier ever dies in vain because he’s carrying out the orders of his Commander-in-Chief…Are we making good judgments about how to keep America safe?” was well-spoken. ‘Muddling through’ Afghanistan was a loss to Obama, as McCain cleaned his clock in response.
- Lehrer stated that they’re even on time. Cool.
- Iran & Israel now: McCain’s statement is not bad. I’m not sure about his ‘Nobody wants another Holocaust’ statement as particularly unique or pertinent. Plus his ‘League of Democracies’ doesn’t make sense to me. But he sounds good, and sometimes in debates that’s all you need. Obama agrees that Iran shouldn’t have nuclear weapons, but he says Russia & China need input. (He implied that Russia isn’t a democracy…interesting insight on his perspective there). McCain can’t say ‘Ahmadinejad’ but can roll off former Soviet leaders’ names without trouble. Obama responds to it by focussing on ‘Keeping America safe’ as being the key to whether or not he’ll meet with the Iranian leader, then points out McCain’s own advisor agrees with Obama. Pointing out the difference between ‘preconditions’ and ‘preparation’ is weak. Obama brings up North Korea as an example of how not to handle a country. McCain seemed weak about the Spain comment, but he makes a strong point about justifying Iran’s statements about Israel…
- New lead question: Russia. McCain won this part. Obama brings up some things, but McCain wins by pointing out the energy issue regarding Russia’s invasion of Georgia, based on the oil pipeline running through that country. What he says is really scary…but he seems on top of this situation, breaking down the situation between Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, etc. Obama’s response sounds decent, and makes him appear capable to handle them. He gets back into energy, but instead of directly addressing the Russia-oil situation, he goes back to his overall domestic energy plan. Obama sounds good stating this, but he will get caught for that nuance, I think.
- Now we’re talking about nuclear power, and Obama’s trying to set the record straight again. McCain keeps right on with his statement, while Obama tries to interrupt. His rebuttal isn’t well done, so Obama pushes Lehrer for a new question. That’s not a bad move, but could seem like he’s conceding the issue, though I’m sure Obama was not actually conceding the issue.
- On the possibility of another 9-11 attack: Obama’s point about the perception of America by those overseas is the one that hit home for me. McCain can’t really trump that, in my opinion.
Overall, I think McCain won the debate (if one can name anyone the winner here). This debate does make me feel better about a possible McCain presidency, though anything would be better than where we are now (hopefully). I would rate McCain’s debate performance as an 8 out of 10, to Obama’s 6. Barack Obama should try to prepare more for the next debate.
Spin reactions:
- NBC coverage has Biden spinning for Obama that points out Obama was talking about the present & future, while McCain was only talking about the past. It’s good that he remarks about Obama’s freshness vs McCain’s age, but I’ll point out here that Biden has been in the United States Senate since January 1973, when John McCain was still a POW in Vietnam.
- Rudy Giuliani states McCain ‘gave Obama a lesson in foreign policy’ tonight. I think that’s a legitimate comment on the debate, but unfair to Obama. Rudy also talks about Obama’s budget plan, and again I think he makes a good point.
- The ‘Truth Squad’? Dumb, NBC…dumb. I don’t mind fact-checking, but you don’t have to make some stupid graphic to run in the background.
Commercials after the spin:
- The Pickens Plan people are starting to get on my nerves. A one-off commercial to lead viewers to the website. Hey guys, why in the world would I want to have a tank of compressed natural gas located just under my child’s carseat? I think the gasoline tank is bad enough in a severe wreck, thank you.
- An ad for the new Will Smith film ‘Seven Pounds’. Looks interesting, but makes me think he’s do a great job in an Obama bio-pic.
- McCain campaign ad: what, Obama couldn’t get the airtime?
