Debate Reaction
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Debates, McCainLast Spring, Barack Obama stumbled through the Democratic debates, seeming unsure and unfocused. Tonight, he nailed almost every question. Agree or disagree with his arguments, it’s hard to argue that he was anything but poised and informed. He may have won his party’s nomination with soaring rhetoric, but he’s winning the general election with smart exactitude. I am truly impressed by how much depth he’s added over the last nine months.
How about John McCain? Well, he probably needed a knockout at this point in the campaign. He didn’t get one, although he was generally stronger and more relatable than he was during the last debate. Against someone like John Kerry, McCain would have won. He has a good hold of the issues and he learned them the old fashioned way: through a lifetime of service. But he had some trouble focusing his thoughts tonight and his humor – usually one of the aspects that make him good in town halls – fell flat.
Anyone who’s been paying attention to this race didn’t learn much new. The only real policy revelation for me was that Obama seems to be warming up to nuclear energy. Otherwise, this was all about watching how solidly the candidate’s understand the issues and how they perform in a less-structured environment.
On the issues, I didn’t feel either had a good grasp of what to do about the economy. Now, I don’t think anyone has a good grasp on this issue, but I would like to have heard more big ideas rather than bits and pieces of ideas still in formation.
On health care, Obama won by having a more understandable plan, even though I don’t particularly like it. On foreign relations, McCain had a hard time separating himself from the mistakes of the last 8 years but he did well in promoting his experience and judgment. Obama showed more than enough knowledge to seem trustworthy on the issue and I think he pulled out a draw here.
On the environment, Obama once again had a clearer, more understandable plan. McCain should have pushed the candidate’s differences on nuclear power, but he rambled during his answer.
Finally, on government spending and responsibility, I don’t for a minute believe Obama will be able to enact all his spending proposals and his tax cuts during an economic recession. But it’s not like McCain is promoting fiscal responsibility outside of the relatively small budget impact of earmarks. That’s a shame, because this is an issue McCain could have won.
All said, this was a good debate. I think Obama won simply by seeming more focused. Whether you like what he had to say depends on your leanings. But he said it all well – not because he used mesmerizing rhetoric but because he had such good specificity.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Debates, 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.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Isn’t it contradictory to say that McCain couldn’t seperate himself from the mistakes of the last 8 years of foreign policy but he did well in promoting his experience and judgement? His experience and judgement are directly tied to those 8 years of mistakes.
Experience in and of itself shouldn’t be considered some magical and automatic benefit for someone. GWB has 8 years more presidential experience than either candidate, but would anyone want him to serve another four years if that was possible?
Experience is only worth as much as what one learns from it. McCain has certainly been through a lot, but I don’t think he’s learned the right lessons.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Yup. Smart exactitude. Clear, simple, focused, a sprinkle of semi-detail, good connection with regular folks. He really has added depth and poise.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Shawn, to be specific on that point — he did give instances where he was right. About Lebannon. About the surge. So I think he does have experience in knowing when to take a stand that may not be popular. Unfortunately for him, he cheerled the Iraq invasion and there’s no way he can untangle himself from that mistake. If he was up against Hillary, he could say “she supported it too” but Obama’s left him on a limb here.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
ASC, I’ll give you Lebannon, although I’d argue that it’s premature to say that the surge has been successful in any greater sense. Sure, violence is down, but it’s not really surprising that sticking more troops on the ground to control things has had that effect. The whole idea is that it provides a situation where the iraqi’s will get their act together and make some real progress. There’s not too much evidence that that has happened yet, nor that it’s going to happen any time soon. It’s too early to say that the surge has saved Iraq.
The troops on the ground taking care of business is only the first piece of the puzzle. There’s a lot of steps that need to happen after that and I wish we could hear more about that in general. The surge is a sort of microcosm of the iraq conflict as a whole. No one doubted that our military would walk all over the Iraqi army and take over the country. And when that happened, many of us claimed that the mission was a success, completely ignorant that the project had really only gotten started.
But anyways, I just don’t see why something as generic as “experience in knowing when to take a stand that may not be popular” is some sort of great quality. And even if it is, like you said, Obama was against the war from the beginning. I’d argue that opposition to the war was fairly unpopular back then.
Thanks for your response. You guys run an outstanding website.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Obama is the clear winner, he showed poise and confidence. He connected with middle America. McCain was disrespectful, made bad jokes and his campaign is clearly in a deadly spiral spin.
http://theobamapound.com/2008/10/obama-clearly-won-the-debate-and-mccain-acts-like-a-sore-loser/
October 8th, 2008 at 12:22 am
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