So I’ll start by saying that my general reaction to every debate is that it’s a pretty poor way of judging whether to vote for the Blue Team or the Red Team. Their policy positions are available online, they’ve been campaigning for literally years at this point, and you’re not going to learn anything new about that stuff in this format. Beyond that, I don’t really hold that much onto the idea that which particular rep from the parties is elected matters all that much in the grand scheme of things. I like Obama, sure. And I have my misgivings (explained yesterday) about McCain’s temperament. But ultimately we’re electing a party, a platform, and a bureaucratic apparatus. And in an ideal world, we’d have a parliamentary government so that was put even more solidly into practice. But even with what we’ve got, those three things matter more to me than the individual characteristics.
But I know other people don’t feel the same way, both because they’re more conflicted about which side is right or wrong in a general sense and because they think the personality of the president has a broad and significant influence that overshadows the place that they come from.
And there’s also the spectacle, which is hard to resist. So I always watch.
This time around, I actually didn’t think either of them did all that well. No major gaffes or problems, lots of tiny mistakes and missteps, and tons of lost opportunities to really drive home a point. Clearly they were both nervous and concerned about straying too far from their preparation, which often prevented them from seizing a sudden opportunity to alter the path of the conversation.
McCain was snarky and clearly irritated. Obama definitely got under his skin, both with his mere presence (a number of folks have commented on McCain’s refusal to make eye contact and his general attitude of I can’t believe I have to debate this novice) and with a number of nice little zingers. I can’t really see that playing well, but what do i know about how swing voters are going to think?
I wish Obama had been stronger on Iraq. He was alright on the substance of that portion, but missed a lot of chances to bring Iraq into the conversation on other topics, particularly in the early economics stuff when McCain couldn’t shut up about spending. Obama eventually got in a “$10 billion a month” comment, but it was too late and not nearly forceful enough.
The only other thing on Iraq is that I wish Obama had been better on responding to McCain’s characterization of a timeline. He should have said at least once (and very firmly) that a timeline 1) allows for changes based on conditions on the ground and 2) is what the government of Iraq WANTS us to do.
What happened to global warming? One brief mention? Obama shouldn’t have given him plaudits on torture since McCain voted for a bill to legitimize it. Really would have liked to hear more on human rights, but I know that’s kind of a lost cause in this sort of context.
Obama bringing up NMD? Yuck. Same with clean coal. And can someone point out to both of these guys that solar, wind, and nuclear have nothing to do with our dependence on oil – what with them solely producing electricity and all.
Some people are irritated at Obama agreeing with McCain so much. I don’t see it as a problem. He outlined a LOT of differences, and it doesn’t hurt to admit it when their positions are similar. McCain is going to want to run with it as “Obama’s a follower” but I just don’t see people being hoodwinked by that, nor do I see it as a winning message for McCain to run on “Obama and I area pretty much the same on foreign policy.”
Obama’s closing was a little weak. Got a bit rambly with all the China stuff. And I really liked bringing up soft power for the finale, but just didn’t do the premise justice. Should have just interspersed it better throughout. A commenter at Open Left suggested something that I think would have been brilliant for a closer:
Senator McCain has repeated several times that I “just don’t understand”. Make no mistake, this isn’t just a tactic, but really how McCain thinks. Anytime anyone disagrees with him, McCain believes they just don’t understand. Does that sound familiar? Haven’t we’ve had enough of those who always believe they always know best and won’t take opposing views into account? Can America really survive eight more years of this belligerent attitude?
I know it tough to go off the beaten track of your prepared remarks, but I think that would have been a killer way to tie things up.
Final verdict: meh. All things being equal Obama probably “won” the debate in the sense that he didn’t give up ground on dangerous terrain. Not sure it’ll amount to much more than that.
UPDATE: One final thought, it’s pretty nice when you have a VP you can trust to go out on all the news shows after a debate and really skewer the other guy.