Sunday, September 28, 2008

Debates Round 1





I think I need to invest in a defibrillator. Not because the debate the other night kept my heart pumping, but because about 30 minutes into it I wanted to make sure I didnt go into coma. Figure a good shock to the heart would wake me up. While the two candidates talked around each other last night I had the MLB scoreboard running to my side in the hopes Milwaukee could upset the Mets and the Sox could steal the AL east crown. I wishI had a monitor to tell me how much time I spent watching the debate and how much time I spent hitting the refresh button on a browser that was set to automatically refresh itself every 30 seconds. Any ways I guess this blog comes down to who I think won. Well as you probably have heard a hundred times now there was no knock-out blow on either side so we have to start nit picking the small things. First things first: yes, Obama said John McCain was right about a dozen times. Republicans would look at this as a win for the candidate and they probably should've. Only problem is their candidate blew and continues to blow that momentum. John McCain couldnt look his opponent in the eye. Normally I wouldnt give a shit, but the particular format of this debate was the two candidates would come out and give a two minute answer each and then have five minutes to talk to each other about it. Obama continually tried to look over and turn it into a conversation, but McCain refused to make eye contact. Instead he stood their with a condescending smile and did that annoying thing where he constantly just seems to hop in place. Yes Obama kept saying John McCain was right, but because John McCain stood their like a pouting old man who refuses to listen to those "pesky youngins" it made him look like he was not open to change. It made Obama look near brilliant. Barack came off looking like he was the one who was trying to be bi-partisan while John McCain looked like he could give a rats ass about listening to anyone elses opinions or reaching across an aisle. The whole thing played like a very boring episode of Scooby Doo. In the end Barack jumped in his van and took off in a puff of smoke while McCain was left their shaking his fist at the meddling young kids as he was hauled off by the police. So McCain blew the opportunity last night to make Obama look stupid for saying McCain was right all the time, but John could still spin it in his favor the next day right?.........right?



wait.......what? Watch it again. This ad shows Barack Obama agreeing with John McCain 3 times.
Then it asks you if Barack Obama is ready to lead and answers the question for you with a "no". .......have you figured out my frustration yet? In an ad supported by John McCain we are told BarackObama is not ready to lead because he agrees with John McCain. So if John McCain thinks agreeing with John McCain's ideas is bad who exaclty is he going to be voting for? You are blowing it McCain. Between your odd week running up to this debate and the horrible Palin interview with Couric things are quickly going off track. Ok. What else can we nit pick. How about when Obama tried to one up John McCain with his bracelet only to screw it up by forgetting the name and making it look like he read it off his wrist. All right Johnny gets a point now right?.......nope. Because foreign policy is supposed to be Jon's forte and he could not remember the name of a world leader. Its a tough name I will grant him that, but he spent so much time name dropping to try and show up Obama and then blew it on the home stretch. So again no points to either candidate. You remember in Karate Kid one when the blond kid from cobra kai kept getting a point on Daniel San, but then would lose the point because of a foul just to wind up back at square zero? This is how it felt to me. This was John McCain's home turf and he failed to drop a crane kick to Obamas chin or at least to one of his ears and that is why in my opinion: The edge in debate 1 goes to Barack Obama. By the slimmest of margins. They went toe to toe and both stood their ground. Thats the problem. A tie in this debate is a win for Barack. John McCain needed a strong and clear win, but he did not come through. So what is everyone else saying: Looks like Obama is the winner.

From CBS:

From CNN: 
Who Did the Best Job In the Debate?

Obama 51% McCain 38%

Who Would Better Handle Economy? Obama 58% McCain 37%

Who Would Better Handle Iraq? Obama 52% McCain 47%


 Who Did the Best Job In the Debate?

Obama 51% McCain 38%

Who Would Better Handle Economy? Obama 58% McCain 37%

Who Would Better Handle Iraq? Obama 52% McCain 47%


From Fox News:



And when conserative web sites like The Pundit Review and National Review Online call it a close win for John McCain then you know something is wrong. Both reviews seemed deeply upset by McCain strategy, but being consertative still gave the nod to McCain......barely. Their is a lot of work needed to be done by John McCain in the next week and a half. Somehow he has to hope Sarah palin does not screw up his campaign anymore then she already has with three simple television interviews and he has to prepare himself to have a clear victory for the October 7th town hall debate. 

1 comment:

Nik said...

The funny thing is that Obama may have said he agrees with McCain, which is a good sound byte, but if you listen to it after he proceeds so say, but...and then explains his differing view.

I mean, shouldn't these candidates be somewhat on the same page anyway? I mean they both are representing the United States of America and we all have the same goals for the most part, but we just differ on opinion on how to achieve those goals.

I agree that McCain needed to knock this one out of the park and he just didn't do that. I found it very odd that he wouldn't look at Obama.

Obama always made an effort to address him and when McCain was talking he also would engage and look at him then as well. McCain didn't do that once which I thought was a little disrespectful if not just plain weird...