Contrasting Debate

So I was very pleased when the presidential debate actually took place despite earlier skepticism that it wouldn't be happening due to the halt in John McCain's campaign. I thought the debate started out actually pretty slow with both candidates kind of dancing around a direct answer to the first question, 'would you vote yes in favor of the 700 billion dollar bailout?' both candidates never really gave a straight forward answer, although Obama did address what he would do to solve the economic crisis, McCain focused more on the past and the reasons that caused the economic crisis. I would have liked to see more of a direct answer although both eluded that they would vote yes in favor.

This debate was mainly focused on foreign policy, which is supposed to be McCain's strong subject but I think Obama did more than hold his own. McCain reinforced to the American people that he has experience. He used a lot of personal stories and name dropping with one slip up on Ahmadinejad’s name. Obama is never going to have the kind of experience John McCain has with foreign policy, that's just how it's going to be and McCain focuses too much on that, on the past, when the American people want to hear about solutions to the future. Obama is never going to have that past experience John McCain has, but he showed incredible knowledge and confidence on the issue last night. There were very few times where Obama was even slightly flustered and delivered his stance and knowledge with the confidence that made people listen.

During the debate they have an audience reaction meter which showed the reactions of the very important independents, the democrats, and the republicans. I found this sometimes to be more interesting to watch than the actual debate. Whenever a negative comment or stab was made toward the other candidate the independents line would fall negatively. In this election, the independents are going to be those deciding votes in choosing the next president of the United States. Everytime John McCain would say condescendingly, "Sen. Obama doesn't understand," the independents line would fall negatively. Obama did a very good job in not talking condescendingly or sarcastically to McCain, who I can't say the same for throughout the debate. Whenever there was a bipartisan comment all the parties, republican, democratic, and independents reaction would be positive. I hope that Joe Biden and Sarah Palin were watching that and can take that knowledge to their debate on Thursday.

I hope that with their debate Joe Biden won't be condescending and that he will have watched the way Obama handled things and he will also conduct himself that way. When they interviewed him afterwards he said I hope I can do as well as Obama did and I think he can if he watched what the audience liked and what they thought negatively of. I found it humorous that CNN got an interview with Biden after the debate yet when they tried to get one from Sarah Palin to have opinions from both sides, she was unavailable. Does she know she has to debate on Thursday? It may not be a bad idea to do some unscripted press interviews before she is thrown into a debate with someone who has much more experience than she does. That will be one to watch.

Overall, I thought that the debate was fairly even in most areas but I definitely think Obama had the edge, even turning a quotation by McCain's own campaign advisor, Kissinger against him when talking about meeting with foreign leaders without preconditions. The follow debates about Energy solutions and the economy will be very interesting and if McCain couldn't get the victory last night that he needed in his strong suit, I would say it's unlikely he will come away with a victory in the next two debates. I hope that everyone watches the following debates, especially those very opinionated people, as well as watch the VP debate! This is important people!