Debate Numero Uno

Friday night’s presidential showcased plenty on both of the candidates. From their responses to the issues to outward demeanor, ultimately the edge went to Obama. Being his calm and collective self, Obama maintained his familiar air of confidence, spoke coherently and concisely, and appeared to be much more…“presidential” and capable than McCain. All too often, McCain looked clearly flustered, hardly countering effectively if at all to any arguments pinned against him. I don’t blame him either. It’d be extremely difficult to rebuttal his already well-publicized support of the Bush administration (i.e. voting 90 percent of the time).
The arguments came and went, ideas were bounced around, and I’m sure we all made our assumptions on responses. While incoherent and sluggish at times with his thoughts, McCain showed some signs of life near the end of the debate. Of course, his trump card has always been and always will be his “experience” in foreign affairs, the main reason why near the end of debate the clarity of his ideas began to show through a little bit more when the issue at the time turned over to the Georgia-Russian conflict and Iran. When the debate focused on Iraq, though, Obama showcased some prowess I’m sure McCain wasn’t expecting.
Definitely where Obama, won the debate. He bashed McCain repeatedly on the lessons learned in the situation in Iraq. Referring to how McCain though the war in Iraq would be quick, how McCain knew where the weapons of mass destruction were, and how McCain ignored the history of violence that’s been immersed in the region for quite some time, Obama really made a convincing argument arguing against McCain’s judgment, with regards to Iraq. The implications derived are supposed to put into question whether McCain’s judgment can be trusted when entrusted with a seat of power as high as the presidency of the United States. And in stride, Obama proved claims that he was not against the recent surge in Iraq, but rather felt convinced that while, in the short term, these surges would reduce violence in certain areas and neighborhoods, the fact of the matter it there needs to be change enforced at the political level to truly quell any and all post-surge violence. McCain hardly had any response.
While I could not find an article on my blog, crooksandliars.com, entirely summarizing and dissecting the debate, the article I did find focused on the above mentioned edge Obama received when the Iraq war came up, reinforcing his position, putting down past claims put by the McCain campaign, and crushing his rival on a vital issue. The author is obviously in favor of Obama, and so in supporting Obama’s argument, she makes the implication that Obama won the debate. I’m in agreement whole heartedly, but I feel like Obama potentially could’ve done a lot better. At times he seemed to continue straddling on the generalities he’s always been focused around. He could’ve taken a huge step to move away from that approach during this debate. While, yes he did specifically target certain issues, he seemed alright with complacently taking his usual approach. Hopefully he’ll focus more on specifics for his next debates.



http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/26/presidential-debate-obama-calls-out-mccains-judgment/#more-33201