I love how people are now pointing to Obama saying "John is right" nine times as if it were a blanket endorsement that everything he said tonight is right.
He agreed with the guy on several points... I don't see what the big deal is. I REALLY don't see what the big deal is considering that both candidates have been preaching a message of bipartisanism and "reaching across the aisle". Isn't part of "reaching across the aisle" acknowledging that some of their opponent's ideas have some merit? Isn't part of it finding common ground? Seems to me that, once again, this is an instance where Obama was attempting to take the high road.
McCain clearly took control of some of the foreign policy questions with regard to the military and I was surprised at how together he appeared on TV tonight. I fully expected Obama to roast McCain on a spit during this debate, but that never seemed to happen. I enjoyed the debate and was glad to see that it wasn't just two guys tactfully dodging questions with non sequitur answers, although it appeared to be going that way at the beginning when things were focused on the bailout.
I don't think either party will be able to argue that their candidate was a clear winner even though both will try. The Republicans will most likely focus on the instances where Obama said McCain was right as evidence that McCain won and the Democrats will focus on the instances where Obama clearly called McCain out on being wrong about anything ranging from the Iraq war to his tax cuts.
I was really disappointed that neither candidate seemed to answer Jim's question early on about how the bailout plan is going to affect their presidency, specifically wanting to know which of their plans may have to be cut or curtailed in light of all of it. Neither candidate seemed willing to commit to point a finger at any programs that might be on the chopping block even though Lehrer asked the question like 4 times, each time getting more and more agitated with both of them.
Both McCain and Obama were very polished tonight. Obama looked cooler, calmer and more collected than any candidate I've ever watched in a presidential debate and he was very concise with his answers. McCain surprised me and really called Obama out on his lack of experience and, I think, made some compelling arguments that may come back to haunt Obama in the coming weeks.
Judging by the "audience reaction meter", whatever the fuck that is, Obama had a clear edge. We watched the fuck out of that thing and it was pretty interesting. The Dem and Independent lines seemed to hug each other most of the debate, only separating when the blue line would go wildly to the top when Obama was making certain points or when the blue dipped way down as McCain was speaking. Rarely, if ever, did the independent line go up with the Republican line if the Democrat line did not... at least that was my impression. The Republican line moved fairly predictably except for a couple instances during some of the Iraq questioning when it moved slightly above center as Obama was speaking. I was surprised to see it move anywhere above center when he spoke, so that was kind of cool.
My prediction is that McCain might get a slight bump in the polls because of this debate just because he seemed way more together and organized than his campaign has appeared over the last few weeks. I mean, the last few days in particular, I've been wondering if McCain even has any idea what's going on. Plus, I think Obama really kept the gloves on for most of the debate... there were a couple of pot shots here and there, but he really didn't let McCain have it like I thought he was going to. I think in the next debate, Obama is really going to have to crucify McCain on some of these issues in order to win. As much as I'd like to see him keep trying to take the high road, if he wants to win, he's going to have to get dirty.
