The Last Presidential Debate 10.15.08 @ 9PM

[MysticCat]

I do think it was McCain's best debate yet except . . .

We watched it on CNN which had a split screen most of the time. The looks on McCain's face when Obama was talking were priceless, and not in a good way for McCain. It was almost like he was trying live up to the characterization of him as an angry, erratic old man. One of the pundits on CNN (can't remember who) said afterward that he looked an old Mr. Crotchety who's always yelling "Get off my lawn, y' darn kids!" It not look presidential.

And I have to comment on this as well: At one point I asked my wife if there was something wrong with McCain's dentures. I don't know that he wears them, and there's nothing wrong with wearing them, but his speech at times sounded like someone whose dentures aren't fitting quite right, and I didn't think it was helping his image of the candidate in his 70s with Sarah Palin as his running mate. Ten or fifteen minutes later, my 11-year-old came downstairs to get something before bed. He watched for a couple of minutes and then asked, "Is something wrong with McCain's dentures?" Yes, I laughed.

As for McCain going after Obama, that didn't play well with CNN's Ohio focus group. Their dial-meter readings dropped off noticeably when McCain did that. Same thing with Joe the Plumber. As soon as those words would come out of McCain's mouth, the approval would drop off markedly.

It was McCain's best debate, but as someone said, too little too late, and it was aimed at the wrong people. It played well to McCain's supporters -- it energized them and injected some much needed enthusiasm for the McCain campaign. But they aren't the people McCain needed to reach -- he needed to reach the independent/swing voters who are still deciding. Going on the attack about Ayers and acting like he can't control his anger don't help him get that group. (ETA: And he needed to try and convince some who are planning to vote for Obama to change their minds.) To those people, McCain "going on the attack" didn't look bold and decisive; it looked, well, erratic, angry and irrelevant to what people care about (the economy). Meanwhile, what looked like Obama's "smugness" to McCain's supporters looked, I think, like self-control and coolness-under-pressure to others.

All the polls I saw were showing the perception that Obama won hands down. I think we've hit the point where most people were seeing McCain (and Obama) through the lens of the opinions they'd already formed.