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Originally Posted by EE-BO
I thought the debate was a wash, but that both candidates did fairly well. In terms of personalities (which is what matters when trying to discuss complex world affairs in 90 minutes or less), McCain got to show that cool, confident experienced side that will help him on the foreign policy front, and Obama got to show he can be tenacious and not just aloof and elite. He had some fight in him last night, and it was much more controlled and appropriate than his outburst earlier this year when Bush gave that foreign policy speech that took a jab at him.
The one thing that really struck me though was just how much these 2 guys must really loathe each other. I do not think they ever made eye contact during the entire debate. With Bush-Clinton in 92, it was more of a coldness with Bush seemingly bored, but McCain and Obama seemed really hateful of each other in a sense.
I just bring it up since McCain has a track record for reaching across the aisle and Obama has made unity a big part of his message.
I do think both are capable of that, and we know McCain is based on past history, but to watch the debates it is difficult to really get comfortable with the idea.
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I agree with you. However, in spite of their anger, they still went out of their way to be polite to each other also, which is important to me. I was listening to debate instructors on the radio after the debate who were judging it based on "debate" criteria rather than policy/issue ideas and they said that Obama would have won by competition criteria.
McCain didn't lose his cool, which was good, because he has a history of having a hot temper.
Jim Lehrer was trying to hard to have them talk TO each other. It took a while for them to get to that point. They were just getting into the format when all of a sudden, it was over. I think Obama did a good job of correcting McCain when he exaggerated truths about Obama's plan (raising taxes on the top 5% of the population, the difference between the actual tax rate on businesses vs. the stated tax rate due to loopholes, etc)
ETA: One "expert" I heard during the analysis afterward was talking about their focus on the 18 billion in earmarks which they said is 1% of the total budget and won't make a difference at all when we're talking about $300 billion in tax cuts and $700 billion in bailouts, which totals 1 trillion dollars.