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2008
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October
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- Courts Affirm Reality, Dump GOP Lawsuit
- Friday Humor: Wassup 2008
- Obama is such a Decent Person
- Live blogging the Carney-Hackett Debate
- Joe Biden & Bill Clinton in Central PA
- A bit of Halloween fun
- Rock for Change '08
- IOKIYAR Wall Street Journal edition
- McCain in Hersheypark on Tuesday
- Rock for Change This Sunday
- Cultural Warrior
- Candidates' Forum
- KEEP THE CAPS ON
- Carney Interview
- Colin Powell Endorsement
- More Letters
- Amercian Fascism raises its head
- ACORN and NY Times
- Anti-Obama Truck(s): Update
- Post-Debate Thread
- Anti-Obama Truck in Lewisburg Today
- "Increasingly Feisty" Crowd at Palin-Hackett Event
- How the right will try and steal the election
- Voting Abstinence
- Treys commercial
- Former Republican Praises Obama
- The Inestimable Earl Pickens
- Post-Debate Thread
- Pre-Debate Thread
- Poll Numbers with Buzz
- PA GOP gets a case of the nasties
- Biden and Palin debate on SNL
- Friday Afternoon Entertainment
- Post VP Debate Reactions
- Countdown to Meetup & VP Debate Tonight
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October
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6 comments:
My reaction to this debate was similar to the last one. I was frustrated by some of Obama's answers and thought he could have done better at being more direct and rebuking some of McCain's claims. On the other hand, I didn't think McCain came off particularly more presidential or knowledgable than Obama, so since Obama's currently ahead, I don't see the polls changing because of this debate.
I also got drunk from taking a sip every time McCain said, "My friends...."
"My friends" was a dangerous choice, Jove. Actually, to me the story of the debate was whether McCain would go aggressively negative, as his campaign has. He didn't.
This was evidently one (or more) of three things:
* He didn't have the stomach for baseless attacks face to face
* He's starting to give up and hopes to regain some dignity
* He decided (or was told) that it's poor strategy to look too negative during the debate
My money is mostly on #3.
In a word: boring. There was never any sense that either candidate would have to take on a tough question and really grapple with it.
McCain was frustrated by having to explain that "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" was a joke"--another lose/lose proposition for him.
Obama is content to say the same things over and over. One new bit of info was when pressed to promise to deal with Social Security and Medicare in the first two years, Obama said he wouldn't promise that but would certainly want to get to them in his first term. Both of them, but especially McCain, seem ground by the process, and I feel the same way. McCain seemed confused or desperate in misstating the details of Obama's health care proposal. Perhaps he thinks he's running against Hillary Clinton's proposals?
Loren, I hope he is! (That is, I hope Obama picks up Hillary-care or something similar).
I've been thinking all day about McCain referring to Obama as "that one" last night, and trying to figure out what he was thinking. It just seemed so bizarre.
My current theory is that McCain was just too overrehearsed, and he had meant to begin that speech by asking, "Which Senator voted for [the energy bill]?" To which "that one" would still be a little disrespectful, but it wouldn't have sounded quite so... strange. But since he said "Who" instead of "Which Senator," and he'd already practiced the rest of the riff, it was too hard to switch gears.
I've been in theatrical productions where this happens--if you've practiced a whole line, and you misspeak the first part, even if the second part no longer follows logically, it's incredibly hard to correct and change the second part. It's much harder than when you're just speaking normally (with nothing memorized). You have to be a pretty good improviser, and I'm guessing McCain just isn't.
On a related note, what do you think McCain meant when he referred to Americans as "my fellow prisoners" today?
I saw several of the cable news places referring to this as one of the most boring debates ever. The rules were designed to keep any real debate from happening, and the candidates played along. Someone referred to Tom Brokaw as playing the Nurse Ratched part. I doubt Obama will take any chances at the next debate--he can just play it safe at this point. (And the audience will probably not be all that large in any case.)
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