For the most part, I watched the first round of the Presidential debate Friday night. And boy, I ended up regretting it. I learned that both candidates followed their political idealism; mostly at behest of their party’s beliefs. I learned that John McCain is lop-sided knowledgeable over Barack Obama with international affairs. And when Obama didn’t have much to offer on international affairs, he simply took the high road in agreeing with many of McCain’s positions. However, it’s generally perceived that Obama was a bit stronger with economics.
Speaking of which, raise your hand if you’re totally against the United States government, spending $700 billion in which taxpayers will have to repay in full? Not only do I disagree that the government should intervene, but I seriously doubt that the government holds any level of accountability to bail out the Housing Market doom, and do it reasonably. Anyway…
McCain adviser, Charlie Black was asked if Obama performed as expected.
“No, no,” Black said emphatically. “I never expected Sen. Obama to spend the entire debate on the defensive, and he did. He did.”
Obama seemed in awe during the debates, while McCain played the role of experienced warrior to Obama’s charming personality; that wasn’t allowed to be displayed.
Even though it’s generally believed that McCain won easily, he still missed his opportunities.
Here are a few: Early in the debate, Obama asked rhetorically: “The question, I think, that we have to ask ourselves is, how did we get into this situation in the first place?” Instead of talking abstractly about greed, McCain might have said: “Senator Obama wants to know how the trouble started. He might ask his close adviser Jim Johnson, who headed Fannie Mae and got an exorbitant pay package.”
Obama promised that we would deliver a tax cut to 95 percent of Americans. McCain could have said: “Senator Obama has made a lot of promises. In 2005, he promised that he wouldn’t run for president. In 2007, he promised that he would work aggressively to ensure public financing of the presidential campaign. In 2008, he promised to fire any staffer who attacked Governor Palin’s family. He broke all those promises. And now he promises to cut your taxes. Right.”
Obama claimed that he “stood up and opposed this war” when it was politically risky. McCain might have replied: “In 2002, Senator Obama said he was against the war. Two years later he said, ‘There’s not that much difference between my position and George Bush’s position at this stage.’ Then he went back to opposing it again. So he was against the war before he was for the war before he was against it. Senator Obama should compare notes with Senator Kerry.”
Obama listed a number of energy options, including “clean-coal technology.” That line was perhaps McCain’s greatest missed opportunity of the night. “It seems that the real debate here is between Senator Obama and his running mate,” McCain might have said. “A few days ago, Senator Biden said — and I quote — ` We’re not supporting clean coal.’”
“And by the way, Senator,” McCain could have added, “your running mate claimed that he was the first person to support solar energy 26 years ago. Actually, the first major legislation on solar energy came years before that, and Senator Biden had nothing to do with it. At least he didn’t claim that he was the inventor of solar energy. That was God.”
Fred Barnes says that McCain won, but not with that knockout blow required in debates to separate themselves in the polls.
McCain was far more forceful and aggressive than expected. And he had Obama on the defensive for roughly an hour of the 90-minute debate. But that doesn’t matter much since Obama was never rattled and made no obvious blunders.
I concluded that mere winning doesn’t count for much in presidential debates, while sound bites do, after participating as a questioner in 1984 in the first debate between President Reagan and Walter Mondale. It was the best night of Mondale’s entire political career and Reagan often stammered and occasionally looked flustered.
But the effect on the race was nil. Why? Because as bad as Reagan was in the debate, no memorable or damaging sound bites emerged. Reagan escaped, and in the second debate recovered effectively with a quip about Mondale’s youth and inexperience.
Even the Progressive acknowledged McCain’s strength, giving him the first round, though the New York Times was rather unwilling to pronounce a winner.
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