Posted on 09/27/2008 12:30:08 PM PDT by NorCoGOP
My personal reflections, as a college communications professor...
First insight was thinking back over the entire week...Obama was sequestered in Florida, preparing for the debate. McCain was out campaigning until his announcement he was suspending the campaign to work on the bailout.
It seems Obama's preparing to debate was for naught. Either that, or Obama has put Al "sigh, I can't believe I lost to an idiot" Gore on his debate prep staff.
Obama was smarmy and squeamish
McCain took an old Admiral's maxim: when in command, command.
McCain publicly took Obama to the proverbial woodshed, and spanked him over and over.
Obama's response: to agree with McCain on issue after issue.
In other words, Obama conceded point after point to McCain last night.
There's a word for that in competitive debate: losing
I didn't expect a lot from McCain, and was pleasantly surprised. I was equally surprised how badly Obama performed, especially since he made such noise in the media about spending so much time preparing for the debate.
What if he's hiding in an aspirin factory?
That being said, Senator McCain left too many arrows in his quiver.
So bombing Paris would be a bad thing? ;)
Let's hope he was just "keeping his powder dry" for Round 2.
I’m no debate professor but I have had my share of informal debates. My own opinion is that Obama was expecting a totally different type of debate. I think he and his handlers wanted to make it personal and “in your face”. He wanted to demonstrate his powers of intimidation, his use of first name, his quick smirks and other gestures of dismissal to denigrate whatever McCain was saying. He wanted to see McCain’s reaction as he saw those gestures and his glaring eyes and he even hoped McCain would lose his temper as he is apparently wont to do on occasion. They probably figured they could take advantage of his fatigue from the financial crisis to push his patience.
But McCain didn’t take the bait. Even with Lehrer urging him to face Obama, he faced and talked to the camera and the audience, not of his base but of the supposedly undecided voters. Obama was thus thrown off his game. His strategy was to fluster McCain but with McCain not even looking at him, he looked as though he were trying to intimidate either Lehrer or the audience. He couldn’t recover his footing after McCain failed to follow suit and it made Obama appear flustered, frustrated and foolish. That is why it appeared he was veering between wonkish professor reciting his talking points and Chicago smart-alecky thug.
Obama went into the debate wanting fisticuffs and ended up being felled by karate chops. It takes two to tango and McCain wisely refused to tango where it would end up making Obama look strong and himself weak.
the rest was just for show...
Those with a messianic complex will attract disciples looking for a “leader” to follow.
I prefer the Untouchables analogy: Never bring a knife to a gun fight.
Ah, the fair Michelle. And in yet another ugly dress, too! Her anger at the Big O’s lame performance was last night’s icing on the cake. How lucky can we get? You can be sure they’ve gone over the videotape a dozen times by now...Michelle and O’s handlers. Not O, of course, he’s ‘resting’.
After wondering how to get Hillary to save them, they’ll have to face reality, which is that they’re stuck with a loser who’s not only an empty suit, but also a dope. Never mind, they’ll come up with some nefarious scheme to trample McCain into the ground next time. Maybe O will get the questions a week or so in advance and be allowed his teleprompter, as well. We’ve already been told polls don’t matter and now the debates which were all important a few days ago, don’t matter either...even though the Great One did wonderfully, of course. The truth is McCain eviscerated Obama. Rush’s show should be hilarious on Monday.
McCain attacked that arrogance of Obama with jab after jab. Mccain was grinning all the while, totally in control of Obama. For O’s part, he was constantly irked and even asked the moderator a couple of times to move on because he was getting so bloodied. Mac had him on the defensive all night and addressing what Mac wanted to talk about, not Obama.
By the look of those pictures you can tell OZERO goose was cooked.
I don’t think it was anywhere near as clear cut as you perceived it to be. Obama was sharp and McCain was sharp. They both were better than I was expecting, with Obama not doing the uhhh thing and McCain just being sharper in general than he usually is. I think it was basically a draw, which puts the pressure on Palin to come through next week.
The Kerry photo’s...it’s kind of hard to attribute that to the debate as much as we want to...Sounds like he’s talking on the cell phone...perhaps more bad news about his buddy Ted? Economic crisis? Personal issues?
Was it my imagination or did Obama not shake McCain’s hand?
I thought he turned away after shaking Mrs. McCain’s hand—[not as blatant as with Hillary, but turned away just the same.]
looks to me like he’s speaking on a cell phone.
Jim Laher was very fair. Best moderator in decades, he played it right down the middle giving both a chance to speak w/o interupting.
He even went out of his way to give Obummer a chance to clarify what he would cut in a recession and when he added another $100B, gave up.
Pray for W, McCuda and Our Troops
**McCain took an old Admiral’s maxim: when in command, command.**
And McCain did. He looked straight ahead. Did not acknowledge most of Obama’s answers. Stood quietly and patiently by until it was his turn.
McCain was Presidential, not Obama saying “Let’s move to the next thing, Jim.”
** Obama was the one who frequently became flustered and on the verge of popping a cork?**
Absolutely. He did not like be rebutted by McCain. Welcome to REAL politics, Obamanation.
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