Post Debate Wrap Up: Obama Won This One

Let me just say this out front,

Time constraints on two candidates who are the leaders of our country's two biggest parties are capricious. They're talking about the issues of our time and potentially our children's and Tom Brokaw chides them every other answer for breaching time from question to question like this is a game show. [MC Search] This is not a game, people. [/MC Search] We ought never promote vagaries as a platform for politicians who make careers in their comfortability in them.

That little piece of unpleasantness behind us,

OBAMA WON.

My comments as they occurred to me (not many but there really wasn't much meat on the bones tonight):

9:14 - LOL @ McCain insisting he suspended his campaign because of the Wall Street crisis like he gave a fuck. McCains such a martyr.

For Wall St. and it's sins, the McCain campaign suffered, died and was buried on the third day it rose again in the fulfilment of the scriptures and ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of father (George Bush)...

9:32 - It's really due to nothing McCain can help, and I've never made his age an issue, but aesthetically the contrast between him and Obama out from behind the podiums can't be a good look for him. Probably reminds voters he's a bit older. Not that I care, mind you just that to others it might.

9:50 - McCain's pacing around the stage is really an eyesore. What, does he have to pee or something? Should we take a bathroom break or did John bring a Depends tonight. Perhaps he he's developing a rash. Perhaps a change in diaper is the change he seeks.

10:11 - Obama went hard on offense in turning his fire toward Osama Bin Laden, the almost forgotten element in the room, you know the guy who attacked us on 9/11?

Look, Obama put on a hell of a show tonight and there's no reason to make a meal over a bag of Doritos here. Tonight did not serve McCain very well and I expected to be saying tonight how hard McCain went at Obama over his personal attatchments but instead McCain looked like a man more comfortable sitting at the head of a table in his house yelling at his grandkids and looking out the window periodically to make sure that the neighborhood's children weren't playing in his yard than sitting in the chair in front of the desk in the oval office. Obama didn't hit any home runs tonight but he's getting batters on base and he's advancing runners with every errant throw McCain makes or mistimed fielding error. Johnny, look up at the scoreboard, there aren't many more outs left.

He needs a win like Bengals need a win, only like the Bengals a clear path to that victory doesn't seem clear and is increasingly less likely as each week passes by.

Game isn't over , but people are leaving for the parking lot.

Post VP Debate Coverage

[LOL @ Joe in this picture looking like 'You got me going against Peggy fucking Hill? Is that what you are here for?']


I got more calls and interruptions during this debate than I anticipated but I still managed to jot down some notes and they are as follows:

9:18 - Palin is all nervous and tentative and anxious in getting in and remembering the points she was given to say. She sounds almost like Kanye in '05 with Michael Myers at that Katrina Benefit.

9:27 - She's very annoying.

She sounds like Bobby Generic's mom and looks like Peggy Hill. Her whole style is very cartoonish.

[Also she sounds like "Stuart" 's mom on from the MadTV sketches.]

9:57 - LOL @ Sarah Palin saying 'We need to stop looking backward and start looking forward' as it pertained to Iraq.

Funny my 2 year old niece said the same thing today when I babysat her and she walked up to me with a shitty diaper.

Point being it's easy to say let's move on when you're the one responsible for the shit in the past.

10:13 - Biden's been cleaning her clock the 2nd half of this thing and it isn't funny how bad she's getting.

She came out hardbody though. Can't deny that but she had all the lasting power of Rice Krispies after 5 minutes in milk.


10:23 - Damn Joe came through with the personal introspective identification with John Q. Anyman right there. Took it to the heart of folks with where he came from, the humble background and familiarity with single parents and those without. Good moment.


In summary, Biden won, not at first but as it went on he wore her down like a running back over the toll of a game. Palin was okay; didn't completely buckle and for that she deserves credit. Whatever her bar was she cleared it in the beginning. About a quarter til 10 she got worked over.

For those keeping score at home the Obama/Biden ticket is up a TD and field goal as it stands right now going into the half.

Tuesday's Obama/McCain debate ought to be fun.

More Debate Polling

CNN:

Thinking about the following characteristics and qualities, please say whether you think each one better described Barack Obama or John McCain during tonight's debate:

• The current financial crisis: Obama 54%, McCain 36%

• Was more intelligent: Obama 55%, McCain 30%

• Expressed his views more clearly: Obama 53%, McCain 36%

• Spent more time attacking his opponent: McCain 60%, Obama 23%

• Was more sincere and authentic: Obama 46%, McCain 38%

• Seemed to be the stronger leader: Obama 49%, McCain 43%

• Was more likable: Obama 61%, McCain 26%

• Was more in touch with the needs and problems of people like you: Obama 62%, McCain 32%

Even Fox News Focus Groups!

Finally, The Post Debate Polling...

From CBS:

Forty percent of uncommitted voters who watched the debate tonight thought Barack Obama was the winner. Twenty-two percent thought John McCain won. Thirty-eight percent saw it as a draw.

Forty-six percent of uncommitted voters said their opinion of Obama got better tonight.

Sixty-eight percent of uncommitted voters think Obama would make the right decisions about the economy. Forty-one percent think McCain would.

Forty-nine percent of these voters think Obama would make the right decisions about Iraq. Fifty-five percent think McCain would.

From CNN:

CNN/OPINION RESEARCH CORPORATION POLL OF DEBATE WATCHERS

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 Insider Advantage:

Obama won 42%, McCain won 41%, Undecided: 17%

Post Debate Coverage

As promised, it was my duty to watch tonight's debate and come back with a brief report on where I saw tonight's debate in it's weaknesses and strengths so I jotted down some notes as it went on and they are as follows:

-Jim Lehrer is quite possibly the worst, most confrontation-seeking host I've quite possibly ever seen. I'm very disappointed in the style that he moderated the debate. He could have executed more restraint over McCain who most times looked like "Mr. Wilson" ['You kids stay off my damn lawn'] from the Dennis the Menace comic strips more often than he did. His authority wasn't respected. It was frustrating and at times I left the room for a few seconds as my anger boiled over. I know Tim Russert isn't here but footage of him and why he was so damned great can be easily found and should be homework for all these guys given the opportunity to referee an argument between two guys, one of which is to become the next leader of our country. We're talking about someone to officiate a discussion of epic proportions, we're not looking for some mildly disinterested father whose needed to mediate an argument in the backseat of a car between two quarreling siblings on their way to vacation. Piss poor job.

-If I'm being honest Barack Obama lost the first thirty minutes to John McCain on the tax arguments and government spending arguments. No two ways about it. I'm not equivocating who is right/wrong on the policy or substantive points but strictly on the merits of debate, stylistically and rhetorically McCain had Obama on his heels. I would have to award that round 10-9 to McCain. The next thirty minutes found Obama on better footing on foreign policy and how it pertains to judgment in Iraq and how we need to go forward in Afghanistan and potentially Pakistan. Obama beasted McCain out of that debate and it wasn't close. I give that round to Obama, 10-8. The last half hour was really a toss-up of mostly of jarring insults and over the top disposition that was obviously meant to project self-confidence and assuredness but overall showed a fundamental lack in class and dignity. That aside, I thought the last round was a draw. I'd be inclined to say Obama won by decision overall as it wasn't a knockout but it just happened that when the time expired Obama had a point more than his competitor.

-McCain was a lot more knowledgeable and intelligent than I ever recalled him being but then again you don't just stumble upon the presidential nomination of a major party in the United States being mediocre so perhaps that was naive to think he wouldn't have come prepared and polished.

-Obama was very respectful and was a complete gentleman to a person I saw tonight that was neither of those two things and also deserving of none of the courtesy he was given. I suspect that wasn't lost on the millions of people who watched the debate, either.

-I think if this debate was a football game you'd say that the ball was at the fifty yard line and for an hour and half nobody got a first down. No team scored on any breakout runs or converted any long throws. There were only modest gains tonight and the ball was advanced only a few yards at any given time of the night. I'd say though, in the frame of the election overall McCain needed some kind of momentum changing event tonight as the American pendulum had been swaying more forcefully in Obama's favor and it was his job to blunt that in Mississippi and I'm not convinced he did so in the event of a tie Obama wins the larger narrative.

Anyway I'll have some polls tonight before I go to bed to see what America thought and more importantly who they saw as the winner of tonight's exchange.

Stay tuned.