Posted in Election 08 | 7 Comments

7 Responses to “Debate Thread”

1. jacob Says:
   September 26th, 2008 at 8:32 pm

   all in all it was pretty null and void as far as swaying anyone either way.

   the debate came down for me a contrast in style, tone, and temperament. mccain to his credit got his jabs in which no doubt were cheered by those already in his camp, but i felt he sacrificed coming off a bit mean spirited and petty in the repetition and tone of that line of attack. meanwhile, obama was much more even keeled and reluctant to throw real mud (to his detriment perhaps?). on personal taste, all ideology aside, i much preferred the energy obama presented as opposed to mccain’s.

   and what’s with mccain’s fear of eye contact? at one point while obama was directly addressing him, mccain was turned even a few degrees away from jim lehrer. that came off unfavorably for me, it displayed a lack of respect as well as a lack of toughness to really engage and square off with your opponent. he may as well have debated obama through satellite. did others feel that?

2. warm jet Says:
   September 27th, 2008 at 2:40 am

   McCain sure did come off as an angry ‘Jabba The Hutt’ character and the ploy to get his temper going did’nt take much. You could see him boiling.
   Yet, he did reel it in (a bit) and took the offensive with some jabs that Obama did’nt answer.

   My main issue is with McCain’s supposed strong point, being the military and the war. He scored points by using this classic line of the Dems having us come home in “defeat”.
   And his talk of coming home in “victory”?
   Dems need to ask him “what he considers “victory”?
   They need to make him answer more about us being there forever.
   And the Dems need to consider their plan as a “victory” as well, cuz it is one.
   I’m sure Biden will go more in detail here, i hope.

   McCain made me angry and physically ill.
   I’m unsure how the ‘undecided’ saw it but if change is what they really want
   he was certainly not it.
   “friends”.
   I agree with the lack of eye contact. I believe he was coached not to look at the smarter ,younger, more presidential man because of his temper was an issue.

   towards the end McCain was on a ramble of lies and slander and was soooo
   irritating when he would not allow Obama to speak.

   Gladly there will be many more and Obama can make him show that ‘Dr Evil’ side and get that temper flaring.

   and of course at the end McCain had to bust out his POW story.

   Obama…Presidential.
   McCain…bitter time bomb.

3. Beetlejuice Says:
   September 27th, 2008 at 5:31 am

   Obama was counter punching all night, his reactive/indecisive nature is annoying.

4. ian Says:
   September 27th, 2008 at 5:44 am

   Via TalkingPointsMemo, here’s two professionals opinions about McCain’s lack of eye contact…

   As a psychotherapist and someone who treats people with anger management problems, we typically try to educate people that anger is often an emotion that masks other emotions. I think it’s significant that McCain didn’t make much, if any, eye contact because it suggests one of two things to me; he doesn’t want to make eye contact because he is prone to losing control of his emotions if he deals directly with the other person, or, his anger masks fear and the eye contact may increase or substantiate the fear.

   I noticed him doing the same thing in the Republican primary debates. The perception observers are likely to have is that he is unwilling to acknowledge the opponent’s legitimacy and/or is contemptuous of the opponent.

   ————————————————

   I think people really are missing the point about McCain’s failure to look at Obama. McCain was afraid of Obama. It was really clear–look at how much McCain blinked in the first half hour. I study monkey behavior–low ranking monkeys don’t look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that.

5. jw Says:
   September 27th, 2008 at 7:12 am

   Beetlejuice,
   It’s better not to project when commenting. Not projecting will help you with the ability to comprehend a subject with deeper and more gratifying limpid perception.

6. jacob Says:
   September 27th, 2008 at 7:14 am

   the reactive nature you saw from obama was directly elicited from mccain purposefully making mischaracterizations of obama’s positions all night… that he would randomly bomb pakistan, sit down with amedinijacket with no strings, raise your taxes… obama had to react.

   it’s clear mccain’s strategy was to just bomb throw. if there was one debate where that may have been effective it would have been last nights. was it?

   when they get talking more about the economy in the next couple, there’s no way he can take that same tact. and at some point john mccain will have to say the words “middle class.”

   ——————————-

   low ranking-monkeys… could there be a better analogy?

7. Beetlejuice Says:
   September 27th, 2008 at 8:21 pm

   jw- limpid perception? that’s funny!

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