Posted on 09/19/2008 6:30:38 PM PDT by Kaslin
Friday evening in Oxford, Miss., Barack Obama and John McCain will meet in the first presidential debate of 2008, and this dramatic campaign will in all likelihood reach another turning point.
The matchup could have come much earlier, but Obama turned down McCain's invitation to join in a series of joint town hall meetings during the summer. That would have allowed both men to ease into personal confrontation with relatively small audiences and similarly modest stakes.
Now they meet with terribly high expectations on both of them, and little room for error. McCain, after enjoying a brief boost in his fortunes from the Republican convention and the unveiling of Sarah Palin, has fallen back into his pre-convention position, lagging slightly behind. Obama still is unable to lock down 270 electoral votes, because he is falling well short of the lead that Democrats enjoy generically over the Republican opposition this year.
Obama is known for his eloquence, while McCain often struggles even when given a decent script to read. That creates an expectation that the Democrat ought to dominate when the two men are directly compared.
But when I discussed the coming debate with one of the Democrats' most experienced debate handlers — a man who helped prepare Hillary Clinton for the primary debates and now is advising Obama — he said, "No matter what others say, I think this is a very even matchup."
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
What a piece of crap. The empty suit is all over the place without his teleprompter. There is nothing eloquent about him
All this tells us is that Obama is a better reader than McCain. So if the ability to read a script and master command of voice inflection is a major function of the CIC, Obama is your man.
See you all in February. /s
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
How can you not be amazed at the different perceptions that other humans adopt. Either only one of us, or neither of us, is correct in our perceptions, yet many of us are willing to parish in defense of our point of view. (As am I) It has been ever thus.
PBS, CBS AND NBC will no doubt slip Obama a list of the questions well in advance of the debate.
WTFH is “eloquent” about “uh, you know; uh, uh, I uh; let me just, that is, you know...”?
“PBS, CBS AND NBC will no doubt slip Obama a list of the questions well in advance of the debate.”
Doesn’t matter.
Even when he has things memorized, he screws up what he says.
Can’t wait to see him hem and haw his way around.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
McCain, after enjoying a brief boost in his fortunes - BARF!
Obama is known for his eloquence - BARF!
starts slowly and finishes with a more complex, if sophisticated, answer - BARF!
despite not being able to identify with aspects of his exotic life story, they can trust him - BARF!
Could someone tell me on what Friday night the debate is?
>Can’t wait to see him hem and haw his way around,<
LOL! Me too.
Why do only Democrat hacks get to moderate debates?
I..um..disagree..
I think they’ve given the list of questions to all presidential debaters for years. Which is another reason why a townhall forum would be far more interesting.
Small wonder why Obama refuses the Town-hall route.
Better still would be to allow each candidate's team to select or write up questions for the other candidate. In a 'town hall' debate, the questions are screened by moderators who are supposed to be impartial but never are. I'd much rather see a debate where questions are selected or drafted by openly-partisan people. Things would be much more interesting that way.
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