Comments on: Debate Reaction

By: Donklephant » Blog Archive » CBS Snap Debate Poll: Obama 39%, McCain 27%

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:22:12 +0000

[...] Alan Stewart Carl’s Debate Reaction [...]

By: TheObamaPound

TheObamaPound — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:16:12 +0000

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/

By: shawn

shawn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:55:38 +0000

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.

By: Alan Stewart Carl

Alan Stewart Carl — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:24:29 +0000

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.

By: kranky kritter

kranky kritter — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:21:05 +0000

Yup. Smart exactitude. Clear, simple, focused, a sprinkle of semi-detail, good connection with regular folks. He really has added depth and poise.

By: shawn

shawn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:13:51 +0000

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.