Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: McCain and Obama in a photo finish
I’m sitting here and I can imagine how the partisans are going to respond tonight. Somewhere someone is saying either McCain or Obama hit a home-run. I’m going to say it was a photo-finish. Both were strong, forceful, even though Obama was a bit more willing to throw out a few facts.
But if we are doing a photo-finish the night goes with an edge to Obama. Mainly because foreign policy is McCain’s strength. This was supposed to be McCain’s night but Obama did okay.
Here is a silly note though. The wives came on stage after the debate. The Obamas were the first to greet the McCains There is some noise that McCain doesn’t respect Obama. I think that came out tonight. Obama, and Michelle, didn’t let it bother though. Were gracious to the old folk.
What do you all think?
I agree! McCain was condescending and rambling. Obama demonstrated his leadership for change for ordinary Americans.
It was interesting.
There was no clear winner
They both made their points strongly
I happen to agree with one more than the other.
What’s funny is I heard a someone on the radio before saying body language and presentation would matter more than what they said.
I found myself noticing that more than once.
McCain didn’t acknowledge Obama. It was condescending and dismisive
Obama tried and then changed course so to speak.
What were you all watching……….. I think Obama stumbled for most of his responses. Every time he was asked a direct question his answers never matched and babbled on about something that had no relevance to the questions. For those of you who believe that McCain was telling stories, I for one am glad we have at least one candidate who has experience. In the areas of foreign policy, defense and economics, McCain has real life experience instead of what has been fed to Obama from his advisors. Obama’s economic plan will bankrupt america, plain and simple. We need someone to stand up and take charge, McCain/Palin is the ticket.
What were you all watching….
I think Obama stumbled for most of his responses. Every time he was asked a direct question his answers never matched and babbled on about something that had no relevance to the questions. For those of you who believe that McCain was telling stories, I for one am glad we have at least one candidate who has experience. In the areas of foreign policy, defense and economics, McCain has real life experience instead of what has been fed to Obama from his advisors. Obama’s economic plan will bankrupt america, plain and simple. We need someone to stand up and take charge, McCain/Palin is the ticket.
I think there was a clear winner in this and that’s Obama. For the first 20 minutes he talked to those in the middle class, and laid out a plan that would help them [us]. It was very clear that his tax cut plans would benefit anymore who made $125,000 or less more than McCain’s plan.
McCain on the other hand, came back a little bit at the end, but I had a feeling that people were bored with the debates and had already flipped to another channel.
For the topic to be on foreign policy, tonight was supposed to be McCain’s night, and he didn’t hit it out of the ball park.
Obama was much more executive looking and acting than McCain could ever be.
McCain acted like child who was being punished for lying and then had to apologize for the lies. He was arrogant and condescending to even Jim Lehrer. I am sure he did nor want to appear at the debate, but was forced to do so.
Just because he is an old man and was once a prisoner-of-war, he thinks he knows better how to dictate to the people of the world. Actually, if he had not been so arrogant and a superior-acting (yet-not-so-competent) pilot, his plane would probably not have been shot down and he never would have been a prisoner. (Please, he admitted this in his own acceptance speech!) I think he got what he deserved as an incompetent sailor-pilot.
I certainly do not wish torture on anyone, but to a great extent he was a victim of his own stupidity and carelessness.
Now he acts with haste and instead slows down the bail-out negotiations in Washington, said nothing in the meeting yesterday, and has admitted he knows nothing about ho business works. He leaves that up to his wife.
I get the impression that McCain is mostly obsolete in Washington and most politicians ignore his shenanigans. His credibility is suspect, and he takes credit when credit is not due to him (or his party, as well).
And if he saw the financial “train wreck” coming, why did he not use his influence and bully-pulpit to head off the wreck? Because he wanted it to happen, and wanted to benefit from the bail-out. That is why!
His wife is filthy rich, from selling alcohol to the poor and middles class, and he has never known what it is to be an ordinary American. He and his family are self-serving and greedy. And he is a real Reaganite, who wants to steal from the poor and give to the rich. McCain makes me want to puke.
And the CNN polls gave Obama a real win.
We were watching the same debate. Some of us recognize that what we already believed to be true plays a part in what we heard
P.S. Change the name and you can you can post the same thing twice
Interesting that Sal1105 and Sallye had the exact same comments. Wonder how much McLame’s campaign paid them to come here and post that?
Obama was much more executive looking and acting than McCain could ever be. He easily held his own and called out McCain when he mistated the truth and told fairy tales.
McCain acted like child who was being punished for lying and then had to apologize for the lies. He was arrogant and condescending to even Jim Lehrer.
Just because he is an old man and was once a prisoner-of-war, he thinks he knows better how to dictate to the people of the world. Actually, if he had not been so arrogant and a superior-acting (yet-not-so-competent) pilot, his plane would probably not have been shot down and he never would have been a prisoner. (Please, he admitted this in his own acceptance speech!) I think he got what he deserved as an incompetent sailor-pilot.
I certainly do not wish torture on anyone, but to a great extent he was a victim of his own stupidity and carelessness.
Now he acts with haste and instead slows down the bail-out negotiations in Washington, said nothing in the meeting yesterday, and has admitted he knows nothing about ho business works. He leaves that up to his wife.
I get the impression that McCain is mostly obsolete in Washington and most politicians ignore his shenanigans. His credibility is suspect, and he takes credit when credit is not due to him (or his party, as well).
And if he saw the financial “train wreck” coming, why did he not use his influence and bully-pulpit to head off the wreck? Because he wanted it to happen, and wanted to benefit from the bail-out. That is why!
His wife is filthy rich, from selling alcohol to the poor and middles class, and he has never known what it is to be an ordinary American. He and his family are self-serving and greedy. And he is a real Reaganite, who wants to steal from the poor and give to the rich. McCain makes me want to puke.
Sorry for the duplicate post. This system sure is slow amd inefficient sometimes, and there is no feedback when one’s post is accepted or rejected.
I have had many posts lost without ever being posted and showing up. Someone needs to fix this commentary system, please.
I think that the first McCain/Obama Presidential debate was generally a wash. But if I was forced to call a winner, I’d have to give it to McCain by a very slight edge. There were higher expectations for Obama and lower expectation for McCain. I fully expected McCain to fold when the debate started off on the Wall Street debacle — but, he quickly rebounded on foreign policy.
So many people in the Obama camp might be disappointed though. Quite a few thought that McCain would have a “melt down”. It didn’t happen. Personally, I believe Obama looked more flustered. His looking down at his crib notes much too often made him appear a bit less prepared.
I’d give a few points to McCain for keeping his cool, and I’d subtract a few points from Obama for not being more emphatic in his response to the “surge” question and by his limp response to McCain‘s accusation that Obama lacked foreign policy experience.
I came away from the debate feeling that McCain would be less dangerous to the nation than the current POTUS IMBECILUS. Contrary wise, I was less impressed with Obama and his fast backtracking on nuclear energy and off-shore oil drilling. Predictably, Democrats lack the ability to completely committed to anything. Or anyone, in our case.
The next debate on Domestic Policies will be determinate. I’m sure McCain will be a complete Neanderthal on GBLT issues like ENDA, while toeing the fascist party line on DOMA and DADT. Whereas, I suspect Obama will give his usual canned, ambiguous, semi-committal, week-kneed response to any question involving the GLBT community — and then pray the moderator will move on quickly past the topic.
Just like Obama will, no doubt, encourage the Congress to shelve all “controversial” legislation concerning us that would force him to take a principled stand on our behalf — that is, if he makes it to the oval office. If you don’t believe me then just look at the anti-Gay “religious” leaders and former Reagan/Bush supporters he has put on his campaign. Oddly, not a high profile Gay or Lesbian pro-rights activist is anywhere in sight at the Obama camp. It makes you wonder what exactly has he promised these White “social conservatives” and Black Baptist homophobes on his so-called “Faith“ tours?
Submissive disparagement, not active optimism, seems to be the rule amongst too many GLBT Obama supporters today. I get really vexed when I see my GLBT friends’ trust taken for granted and then their hearts broken, time after time, by sociopathic, manipulative, self-serving politicians. Even one of our next door neighbors, who is a loyal Obama supporter, does not for a moment believe that Obama will lead in the least bit on our issues. He is resigned to that because he fears the alternative so much.
Yet, McCain and Obama both believe that we should not be married to our life-partners. The team of McCain and Obama both proudly proclaim that they will each defend and uphold heterosexual privilege over us. So, why bother? Do we trust Obama’s shallow, non-commitment to our “half equal” rights over McCain’s up-front opposition to us. These are our choices?
My gay neighbor’s spouse (yes, they were recently married in California this September) agrees with me. When he was accused of being “selfish” by his straight Democratic friends (because my friend did not defer his human rights to other “issues” facing the country) my, recently married, gay neighbor proposed the following tee-shirt slogan for the edification of all so-called “Liberal“, straight Obama supporters:
“Call Me Selfish Only If You Are Willing to Give Up Your Right to Marry the One You Love”
I guess it would have to be printed in small letters or on a really big tee shirt, but the message is powerful enough to make each of us question, in our own hearts, why must we have to choose from any of the above?
If there are no consequences for betraying us, then why should any politician ever take us seriously. If we cannot understand the political principle of “Quid Pro Quo”, and demand its application, then we have already betrayed the future of our own kind. Sometimes you have to lose a battle in order to win the war. If that’s what is required for people to take us seriously, then we had better stop raising people up who are keeping us down. We don’t owe anybody our votes — they work for us. Make them earn it.
I have reluctantly assumed the mantle of the Devil’s Advocate. In reality, I am a Registered Democrat. But, ultimately, the choice is yours. I grow weary of having to do the “I told you so” dance. I’d be more than glad to pass my dance-card on to somebody else. But, just in case, I’m going to dust off my best club-shoes — that is, if Obama wins and follows Democratic Party’s predictable patterns of political expediency, at our expense. I hope I’m wrong. For all our sake.
~ Bud Evans
the fact that mccain never made eye contact with obama was weird and unbecoming. by far, this will be the biggest take away from the debate followed closely by obama repeating “you were wrong” on iraq directly to mccain.
Take a look at the polling done last night. The pundits certainly are call this a tie, but not the American people.
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/09/27/why-voters-thought-obama-won-and-why-the-pundits-didn-t-get-it.aspx
The economy is weighing heavily on Pain Street, and the American people are looking for someone to give them some kind of relief. Plus it didn’t hurt that Obama is very presidential and McCain looks like a member of the lollipop guild.
Aren’t any of you Log Cabin types the LEAST bit concerned that in all likelihood Palin WILL succeed to the Presidency AND be the heir-apparent in 2012 or 2016 (if by some miracle McCain survives long enough to finish two terms, and the voters don’t turn him out of office after the first one). If she does, it will see equality for women back a hundred years.
Hillary vs. Sarah in 2012 might be kinda FUN, for the purpose of exposing Palin’s breath-taking inadequacies, but *I* thought the contrast between McCain and Obama would be equally stark, and evidently it’s not, at least not to Joe Bowling Shirt in Parma, OH. He’s lost his job, his pension, his healthcare, and his house, but by G*d the Regurgiclones are gonna save him from GAY MARRIAGE. THAT’S why his marriage is in trouble: queers marrying each other. It COULDN’T be because he’s sitting on the couch swilling beer in a dirty wife-beater and getting fat and smelly while his wife works at the local Shop-’N'-Rob for minimum wage to try and hold their family together. The Republican Fascist business oligarchy has had EIGHT years to make government work. They have failed abysmally. Yeah, yeah, Clinton allowed DOMA and DADT to pass, BUT … when he left office, we were at peace, gas was $1.50 a gallon, and there was billions in surplus in the Treasury.
Eight years later, gas is $5.00 a gallon in some places, America is a world pariah, a great American city has been destroyed and left to rot while Cheney, Halliburton and their cronies make billions off fake attempts to “restore” New Orleans and “rebuild” the infrastructure of Iraq. And, oh yes, lest we forget: despite the blackout on pics of returning caskets and military funerals, over 5000 young Americans and G*d only KNOWS how many civilians have been killed in a TOTALLY ILLEGAL war.
And McCAIN is going to turn all that around??? HE gave advice and consent to it! It was HIS Party, the Elephantosaurus, that pushed all those things through during eight years of INCREDIBLY CYNICAL misrule.
Cheers,
Bud Clark
San Diego CA USA
Today, the news feeds have confirmed that Pailin had many unethical behaviors/actions during her term as mayor of Wasilla. They have witnesses and statements from residents with whom she collaborated.
I am sure they will find a slew of similar type unethical actions while she has been governor of Alaska.
And, these are rypical of the unethical behavior of most Republicans from the past 40 years or so.
I saw her interview with Couric. She was pitiful and I think Tina Fey’s impression is not at all funny, but ACCURATE.
Palin simply could not establish why she has foreign policy experience, other than Putin MIGHT fly over Alaska, and Canada is a neighbor of Alaska too. So I guess and executive from any state that borders Mexico or Canada must have foreign policy experience too.
Hmmm! Make one really wonder what experiences it takes to be President. Just look at Dubew.
Our contry, and specifically our community, absolutely cannot take a chance on a bigotted war-mongering idiot in Washington any more. She certainly is one in hand who is worth less than two evil dictatorial Bushes.