What I Learned from Tonight’s Debate
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at
11:02 pm
Senator Obama and Senator McCain are both left-handed.
McCain, God bless him, looks older than he is, especially when he walks around.
Moderating a debate is a no-win proposition. Brokaw (whom I mostly like) just seemed like a scold about the format and the clock.
Both candidates did fine. I can see either one of them as President.
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McCain didn’t just look older – I thought he looked a full 10 years older than his age, the way he was tottering around. I know people actually in their eighties who look more spry. Honestly, I was shocked. McCain as a speaker is clearly more comfortable in a town hall format, but I think being in an environment that showed his age in such an unflattering way more than neutralized that.
I didn’t learn anything new, substance-wise, about either candidate. I thought they pretty much stuck to their talking points. I could have recited them myself, at this point.
I thought McCain referring to Obama as “That one” was tactless amd rude and may come back to haunt him. McCain’s attempts at jokes were also a negative – not only were they mean-spirited, they were lame as well. Obama had no such gaffes. But at least this time McCain had the courtesy to actually look at Obama. I was sure he wouldn’t make that mistake twice, after the pundits made hay with it after the first debate, and Obama came out of it looking like the only grown up in the room.
Sully wrote, “…this has not just been an Obama victory. It has been a wipe-out.” (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/live-blogging-n.html) I would not go nearly that far. But I do thank Obama came out ahead, overall. He continued stand toe to toe with McCain on the presidential demeanor and authority evaluation, and maybe more so – unlike McCain, he never said anything mean-spirited. There was no movement on the substance of the issues – that’s a draw. McCain said some unfortunate things; Obama, while occasionally showing an edge of appropriate anger, stayed classy. Taken together I think tonight helped Obama more than McCain, but not dramatically so. But even if you called it a tie, a tie goes to the front runner, who as we all know is Obama.