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Ben Smith put up an interesting tidbit about an hour after the debate. He said:
The mild consensus in the press file was that McCain won, if not in particularly dramatic fashion. The two insta-polls out -- from CBS and CNN -- found the opposite: That Obama won by a wide margin. CBS had it 39% to 25% for Obama, CNN 51% to 38%.As an aside, if you want to read a round-up of the instapolls, you can see them here.
Once again, it's very interesting how "they", the professionals, differ from "us" the regular folks. Today, we'll likely see "them" pounce on McCain's gaffes about Pakistan, and his lack of engagement with Obama. "They" will also bring up the things that Obama should have said.
But "us", especially those of us who are NOT junkies, don't know what a "failed country" means, and therefore missed the Pakistan gaffe. They can't pronounce Ahmadinejad, so John's struggle won't resonate with them. They don't know that McShame consistently votes against Veteran's benefits (in fact didn't even show up this year for the vote on upping Vet benefits after speaking out about how the bill was flawed because it would encourage people to leave the military early), so they won't notice that Senator Obama didn't make that point.
But there are two more debates left (we'll get to the Senator Biden/Sarah Palin one in other posts), so here's the question: If you could give one piece of advice to Senator Obama for the last two debates, what would it be?
Comments are open.
Karen Anne · 859 weeks ago
Mithras · 859 weeks ago
You did well to remain calm and thoughtful in the first debate, while Sen. McCain insulted and attacked you, even though it's likely you felt provoked. This served to make you seem more "presidential", confident. In future debates, you'd do well to respond with more emotion when you are attacked, and when speaking of the failures of the past 8 years that have harmed ordinary Americans' lives. It may not be your style, but we your supporters - and I think, some of the undecided voters out there - would prefer to see you show it when you are justifiably angry. We're angry too.
ahoff48 · 859 weeks ago
Harriold · 859 weeks ago
During the Iraq discussion, he should have turned to McCain and said, "John, what the American people need is not a good soldier who can "take a hill", but a wise leader who knows when not to enter into a useless and unnecessary war in the first place."
GoThen · 859 weeks ago
Although I hoped for gaffes by McCain, the "failed country" isn't one, either. The actual term is "failed state" but McCain can't know that. The is a widespread misconception, shared by Europeans, that Pakistan is a succeeding state because it's a U.S. ally and it has nuclear weapons. But the Pakistani government doesn't control all of Pakistan's provinces. In fact, Tribal Areas and parts of Northwest Frontier seem not to be governed at all. That's what they call failed. And that's one reason why the Pakistani nukes are not a success but dangerous (and a threat not only to India but, yes, to Iran as well). Interesting that McCain somehow seemed to perceive some of that.
More interesting that, concerning Pakistan, Obama and McCain changed roles. Here, the sabre-rattler suddenly was all for diplomacy whereas Obama made himself look like a warmonger.
Which goes to say that, while McCain isn't an option, you should see the whole picture and see the flaws in Obama, too.
SLCScott 74p · 859 weeks ago
So keep being yourself. It frustrates your core supporters, but it works well for those who have not yet decided.
Annette · 859 weeks ago
Vicki 51p · 859 weeks ago
Obama is a very smart, and extremely sensible man. He gave some really good explanations last night, showed how McCain was using facts to lie. I hope everyone understood that.
Considering another donation - already donated twice this Sept, but what's one more, eh? ;-) still nowhere near 2300 ...
Emit R Detsaw · 859 weeks ago
"Hey John, I'm over here. Can you look me in the eyes and say that?"
NicasioKid · 859 weeks ago
RichW · 859 weeks ago
SLCScott 74p · 859 weeks ago
Was it good or bad politically for Obama to agree with some of McCain's points during the debate?
Leaving aside the politics, do you personally think it was good or bad that he sometimes agreed with McCain?
(I'm not asking about the individual points of agreement, just the fact that any existed at all. MSNBC has been chewing my first question over quite a bit today.)
tmess2 70p · 859 weeks ago
The long-term is based not on what the pundits say but on the soundbites that get repeated. In a normal year, I would be looking to see which got more tv time -- Obama's "you're wrong John" or McCain's "you don't understand."
This year, I don't think that the debate is going to get that much air time as the media will instantly return to the financial crisis as the main story. So I think the initial impression is likely to stick.
Karen Anne · 859 weeks ago
Chad_Nielson 57p · 859 weeks ago
Beryl 51p · 859 weeks ago
McCain's dismissive attitude was by design -- he wanted to show the world that Obama was not on his level. However, he also showed us how he would behave with our allies and adversaries! We must change the world's view of us so we can obtain the must needed support to fight where we should have 6 years ago -- Afghanistan!
c_b · 859 weeks ago
Peter, CT · 859 weeks ago
Instead, he decided to beat the "i said it was a bad idea to begin with" horse. Its true, but I think he'd be better off showing the american people he can think intelligently and really understands what went wrong in iraq AFTER bush precipitously led us in.
Dan_upstate_NY 23p · 859 weeks ago
So I guess I want to make two points: First, Obama should be true to himself. It's not his nature to lose his cool. Second, for him to appear enraged poses perhaps the greatest threat to his chances of winning the presidency--that he would look like just an "angry black man" (a la Al Sharpton). As we all sit here and judge Obama's performance, it would be well to remember the racial elements at play.