Tie Goes To The Runner
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Debates, Economy, Foreign Policy, McCain
I thought Obama was better than McCain on the economy because that first 20 minutes for McCain simply wasn’t good. He was shaky, uncertain and didn’t really convince anybody he had a good command on the topic. Also, Obama certainly made the case that McCain was tied to the failures of Bush’s economic policy, and (you heard it here first) McCain’s claim that there should be a spending freeze will come to haunt him in the coming days. Yet another Hail Mary? Perhaps.
On foreign policy, McCain hit his stride but Obama held his own. The result? They tied. McCain kept attacking Obama on his Iraq and Iran policy, but Obama scored a direct hit with his mention of McCain’s unserious “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran” comment. Also, on Afghanistan, Obama came out the winner, but only because McCain took his eye off the country and then admitted that he failed previously on his (or America’s?) 80’s Afghanistan stance. It was an honest moment, but not a good one for McCain.
The result?
I don’t think any Republicans switched tonight, but Obama reassured some Independents that he’s ready to lead on the foreign policy front. So I score this one a tie, and that means this one barely goes to Obama.
As mentioned, McCain really should have had a much clearer victory, but he didn’t. Much like the Gore/Bush debate in 2000, this could prove ultimately prove to be a big win for the supposed neophyte because McCain needed to really lay the wood to Obama’s judgement and he simply didn’t do it.
Still, there are two more debates to go and anything can happen.
Next up: VP Debate!
This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Debates, Economy, Foreign Policy, McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 27th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Despite what the polls are saying, personally I feel it was a tie. Most pundits are saying McCain fumbled on questions on the economy, but I thought there were two points that were well made:
1) Mcain mentioning a few times how many earmarks Obama has requested. I hadn’t heard the number before and it was astonishing, and Obama ddn’t deny it. And when Obama said he suspended earmarks, McCain reminded America that it was after he started his campaign. I thought that was a powerful point. McCain’s point was to make America question whether he would really decrease spending, given his record on earmarks.
2) Lehrer kept trying to get the candidates to say what they would have to give up due to the economic crisis. McCain didn’t sound different than he’s always sounded, because he’s always made cutting spending a major theme of his campaign. Obama, on the other hand, answered the question by listing all of the things he would not cut. Again, that was not very reassuring that Obama would actually cut spending. You say McCain’s only answer to the economy question was earmarks. But the specific question was how to decrease spending, not the economy in general (that was a different question were I don’t think his emphasis was earmarks)
Now, I’m not saying McCain won. Obama had his moments too. I’m just pointing these out because the media is mostly ignoring them.
Oh, and I found it very annoying that Lehrer kept saying, “I’m just trying to get you to talk to each other” but then cut them off when they tried to respond to each other’s points, and subtly admonished them for taking too much time on each topic.