As with most debates, people who already liked McCain will be happy, and people who already liked Obama will be happy.

I think that’s a problem for McCain.

I really, really, really don’t understand his whole campaign strategy. Attack, attack, attack is certainly what his right wing base wants him to do.

But for many moderates and Independents, isn’t that exactly what Republicans and Democrats have been doing to each other for oh, the past 15 years or so?

… and isn’t that one of the things we’d like to see changed?

Immediately post debate, some of the MSNBC talking heads were criticizing Barack Obama for starting out too many retorts by pointing out areas of “agreement” … before pointing out the differences.

Hard-core Republicans will be peeing themselves with excitement over this.

Hard-core Dems will be screaming at their tv “what are you doing!!!”

… but, more importantly, I think it will play very well with Independents.

John McCain talks a good game about being Mr. Bipartisan, and getting things done. And maybe a year or two ago that was true. But over the course of this campaign (and tonight is no exception), if really watch what each of the candidates say, and how they act, I think it’s pretty clear cut which one of them would actually be most likely to reach out to the “other side”.

… and just for clarification here, Joe Lieberman has long since stopped counting as being on the “other side”.

All along, throughout this campaign, I haven’t been too concerned about the “issues”. I’m pragmatic enough to realize that majority of what BOTH of these guys are promising is at best pure BS.

What I’m looking at, and what ultimately swayed my vote to Obama was Temperament.

… then again, I could almost be classified as a “one issue voter”.

I very much interested in electing as the next Commander in Chief, the guy who (in my opinion) is Least likely to send me on an all expense paid trip to Iran some day.

Just my three pennies,
Todd

I know, that’s why I have a hard time saying.

Let me put it a different way.

There were two debates tonight. Debates are not only about issues, but presentation.

There was a debate on the financial crisis. For a policy wonk who pays attention to the issues, Obama had a slight edge on issues, but McCain actually won on presentation. He also successefully stuck Obama with a tax increase that people will naturally recoil from and Obama did not successuly answer this. Walking away, I didn’t thnk, well, I’m not in the 95 percent, so who cares, I thought, McCain says you don’t raises taxes in a financial crisis. McCain won by more on presentation than Obama did on issues.

There was a second debate on foreign policy.

McCain more deeply understood the issues and was confident in his answers. Even though I disagree with his stance on these issues, he presented himself well (smugness aside) and didn’t make any blunders. Obama did well for a junior senator from Illinois going up against a seasoned McCain, but he didn’t outperform him on the issues or presentation. For example, there’s no doubt that going into Iraq was a mistake; Obama was right and McCain was wrong–but that was in 2003. What is he going to do today. I know and you know that Obama has a plan to extricate us from Iraq, but he did not convey that plan. Neither did McCain, but that was not his goal. Obama was trying to convey the plan and only has to cast doubt on it. McCain also has a recent success with the surge–no matter how much I think the war is idiotic, I cannot deny the surge has stabilized the region. Obama cannot deny it either, so his repsonse was to say we shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Not a winner.

Obama needed to convince me that his plan will further stabilize the region and McCain successfully cast doubt it will. Obama spent too much time on the mistakes of the past and failed to paint a positive for the future in Iraq.

Obama did better on Afghanistan and Pakistan, but McCain did manage to cast doubt on him there, too, when harkening back to Obama’s statement he would go into Pakistan. As we’ve seen in the last few weeks’with Pakistan firing on US forces, this can be a problem. Now who’s running off half-cocked? I know that Obama is not launching a war against Pakistan, but he funbled on this one.

Also, McCain scored big with Obama’s willing to talk to anyone without preconditions. Rather than sticking to his guns, he went mealy mouth with his preconditions don’t mean preparations. And Kissinger never said he would meet without preconditions and Obama shouldn’t have said he did…he looked stupid. Yes, Kissenger said he would meet with Iran, but that is not the same thing as meeting without preconditions. Obama, rather than going on the offensive with punishing people by not talking to them (lame), he was on the defensive and looked bad doing it.

Those are just a few examples.

So, if I were scoring

Debate 1
McCain 4.5, Obama 5.5

Debate 2
McCain 6, Obama 4

Total
McCain 10.5, Obama 9.5

Win to McCain–and I feel dirty saying it.

And because McCain didn’t flummox big time, in a big way, he “wins”?

So when Obama NAILS the economy debate, and McCain does OK, will that be a win for McCain then?

That reasoning really points to a Obama win. If Obama holds his own and has some impressive points…
I don’t know I’m drunk from too many “Obama doesn’t understand…”

Justin Gardner @ Donklephant:”Obama is detailed. McCain is shaky. John will have to right his ship soon or risk losing this thing.”…

You can argue that a tie on foreign policy is a win for Obama, but given the first 1/3 of the debate was about the economic crisis I have to concede that McCain did far better than I expected. He was relaxed throughout the first third, his answers were confident, his delivery intentional. I expected a disaster and he passed.

Obama was unable to paint him as ignorent and at times stammered his way through his own points (especially at the beginning.)

McCain scored points on a gut level with you don’t increase taxes in bad times and his insistence on cutting spending were effective. Obama could not answer well on the tax increase, even though he tried to make it clear it was just for the wealthy, and he failed to pin McCain on being part of the last 8 years of drunken GOP spending.

I think overall Obama was better versed and knew the issues, but McCain did not embarass himself as he has so many times this week. So, if Obama holding his own the foreign policy is a win, then McCain holding his own in the economics is huge.

In the final 2/3, McCain was smug and condescending, but it came from a position of strength. There were more than a few annoying moments when he pushed it to far, but there is no denying he knows the issues. I may not agree with him much of the time, but he presented his points with conviction and that resonates with people.

Obama, I thought, did well in the last 2/3 of the debate, but there were some moments where he was clearly frustrated that McCain had taken control of the debate and he could not wrestle it back. Even when he had good points, his presentation lacked the force of McCain. Even when McCain was lying/misleading, Obama was unable to or refused to call him out on it. For a junior senator, he did quite well, but McCain was the victor here.

I was sweating through the entire thing.

I’m not so sure that he won outright. On the Iraq questions I thought Obama spent too much time on water under the bridge (i.e. the decision to go to war in the first place, which wasn’t even McCain’s to make). But for the most part Obama held his own, especially early on with the economic questions – which of course are what’s on everyone’s mind at the moment. So even though I thought McCain won tonight, it probably won’t be enough to give him a significant bump.

Next week, we find out whether Sarah Palin can stop the bleeding at her end of the ticket.

I’m biased, but in terms of just general viewershipness, Obama won for presidential; McCain won for talking points, consistency of hits (Obama was wrong, wrong, doesn’t understand, etc)

They should be coming over HERE!!! :p!~~~~~~

What do you think?

“McCain won this, 10 rounds to 5.”

This independent voter was turned off by that.