While I have no problem with McCain offering up these stories, it seemed to evoke memories of President Bush’s tactics during his debates with Kerry in 2004. I realize that emotional appeals can be a powerful tool in showing that a candidate is “in touch” with the nation, but McCain would often use these stories to sidestep actually answering a question.

Obama on the other hand stuck to keeping his arguments mostly point-based. He did digress several times, such as his reply “I have a bracelet too.”, after McCain talked about a bracelet given to him by the mother of a soldier who was lost in combat.

I felt that Obama was a much better orator and for me that is something that I have been missing for 8 years, made all the more disheartening after having one of the best presidential orators in our nation’s history with Clinton. I admit that I am biased, as I went into this debate hoping that Obama would come out on top, but I feel that McCain’s often condescending remarks “What Mr. Obama doesn’t understand” may come back to haunt him, as it strikes a disonant chord that I have heard echoed by more than a couple of people. While Obama may not have the foreign policy experience that McCain does McCain went about bringing that out in the wrong way. Let’s also not forget that McCain’s “Friend of over 30 years” Henry Kissinger was correctly quoted by Obama and not his long-time friend. Perhaps 30 years of experience isn’t as valuable as McCain brazenly believes.

I look forward to watching the next debate.

According to the Wapo McCain also misstated his Lebanon vote

McCain seriously misstated his vote concerning the marines in Lebanon. He said that when he went into Congress in 1983, he voted against deploying them in Beirut. The Marines went in Lebanon in 1982, before McCain came to Congress. The vote came up a year into their deployment, when the Marines had already suffered 54 casualties. What McCain voted against was a measure to invoke the War Powers Act and to authorize the deployment of U.S. Marines in Lebanon for an additional 18 months. The measure passed 270-161, with 26 other Republicans (including McCain) and 134 Democrats voting against it.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/220181.php

There is plenty of other stuff but i think mccain actually made more substantive mistakes than obama did.

What was most telling to me was that neither candidate really wanted to engage the other, particularly on the economy. Jim Lehrer had to fight reasonably hard to get them to use the five minutes of debate time as originally intended.

I couldn’t decipher who I thought was a clear winner, although I do think that Obama probably reassured some undecided voters that he could foot it as Commander-in-Chief (but McCain still has something of an advantage here).