Tuesday, October 07, 2008

The Second Debate - What's The Verdict?


What are your thoughts about the Town Hall Debate?

It didn't look like McCain did what he needed to do - Hit a Grand Slam Home Run.

Obama appeared just as comfortable with this format as he does with the more structured debate format. On the other hand, the Town Hall format was supposed to be an advantage for McCain.

This time around Obama did a better job of not allowing McCain to get away with misstatements. But I wish he would have mentioned that McCain (in the recent past) has called for cuts to Medicare and for putting Americans' Social Security on Wall Street.
That would have crushed McCain, IMO. But once again, Obama allowed McCain to go unpunished on his past statements. Obama also failed to point out that McCain's BS $5,000.00 coupon for healthcare would not be enough to cover the medical costs for Americans.


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UPDATE

Instapoll results from CNN

Who did the best job in the debate?
McCain (R) 30
Obama (D) 54

Opinion of Barack Obama (before debate)
Favorable: 64 (60)
Unfavorable: 34 (38)

Opinion of John McCain (before debate)
Favorable: 51 (51)
Unfavorable: 46 (46)

Note: Notice no change in the favorable/unfavorable for McCain. This is not good news for Mr. Straightalk. He had to move his favorable numbers up quite a bit tonight.

This is Devastating info for McCain!!! But it just means that they will probably continue to go negative on Obama, because that's all that McCain/Palin have going for them right now.

From CBS

Who won?
McCain (R) 27
Obama (D) 39
Draw 35

Will Obama will make the right decisions on the economy?
Before debate: 54
After debate: 68

Will McCain will make the right decisions on the economy?
Before debate: 41
After debate: 49


Obama did better than I thought (yes, i'm always hard on Obama, because we have to jump higher, run faster, and work harder just to be on equal ground).

My favorite quote from Obama tonight was when he responded to McCain (I forgot on what question) saying that a wheel had fallen off of the Straight Talk Express. lol.
That may have been the quote of the night.

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UDPATE 2

More from CNN snap poll

Who expressed his views more clearly in the debate?

Obama 60
McCain 30

Who spent more time attacking his opponent?

Obama 17
McCain 63

Who seemed to be the stronger leader?

Obama 54
McCain 43

Who was most likeable?

Obama 65
McCain 28

5 comments:

J said...

I think it would have been interesting if McCain would've been asked to comment on Obama's ties to terrorism. It could've disbanded rumors of Obama and at the same time may have won McCain some independents if he did not agree with the far-reaching connections that the argument of Obama as a terrorist try to make. The inverse of this would've had a similar, if opposite, effect.

rikyrah said...

that one

that one

Obama didn't hurt himself; he helped himself.

No game changer

Brian said...

J.R. Bernard,

Brokaw was not going to "go there" in this debate. And McCain would have been disingenuous if he would have denied knowledge of his new campaign tactic.... McCain can't claim plausible deniability here... He knows full well what's going on. The decision to go negative the way they have was a conscious decision by McCain and his staff, not something innocent or accidental. I think Brokaw and just about everyone in the audience understood that, that's why the issue of allowing him to deny it never came up, nor should it have. The only thing McCain could have done was take responsibility for it...and he wasn't going to do that.

Brian said...

Rikyrah,

I agree... I thought that McCain's choice of words were odd, to say the least.... really out of place. I don't know if race was behind it... I think that was off the cuff McCain just being McCain...except it was captured on camera for the entire world to see.
It made him look like an arrogant condescending grandfather or uncle.
It probably played well with his base, but not so much with the rest of the electorate.

Obama did pretty well... he is good at walking the tightrope... being sharp and holding his own, and being just aggressive enough to get the job done... not coming off as too aggressive or as the angry candidate. (especially hard when his opponent is attacking him with all sorts of nonsense).

I think the game changer may have already taken place...and neither Obama or McCain can control it. It just so happened, that Obama was better poised to get the most from this national (now global) game changer.

Truthiz said...

AI:

"I think the game changer may have already taken place...and neither Obama or McCain can control it. It just so happened, that Obama was better poised to get the most from this national (now global) game changer."

BINGO!

Regarding the debate:

So much for McSenile's so-called "mastery" of the Townhall meeting. I think what it really showed the viewers is just how much there ISN'T to John McSenile or his campaign. NO vision. NO message. NO plan. Nothing_except that he wants to be president.

I'm thinking_out of arrognace he thought that his POW status all but ensured him the Presidency, despite the fact that it didn't work for him when he ran against Dubya in 2000!

Obviously he was counting on "race" being "THE" deciding factor, favoring him_and until Nov 4th, We simply don't know how much of factor it will actually play?!

But it appears that this economic crisis is trumping everything, including "race" and IF that holds, i don't see how Obama loses.

In short, last night, Barack did what he needed to do to maintain his "lead" and McSenile hauled azz outta there as soon as the debate ended!