Saturday, September 27, 2008

Debate links

The AP reviews the debate - It's got a "by line" so I don't assume that this is straight news. Though having read it it's pretty close to fair.

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - In a faceoff that returned again and again to judgment, John McCain portrayed himself as a battle-tested elder running against a naive rookie, while Barack Obama suggested the Republican is a hothead who made the wrong choices on the Iraq war, corporate taxes and more.

Now they take the themes from an intense first debate back to the campaign trail, looking for some edge in a tight presidential race. With 38 days left, McCain is headed for Washington and the dispute over a Wall Street bailout, while Obama plans to visit Republican-leaning states where the Democrat thinks he can make inroads.

CNN Story - Interesting poll information. Not sure it means anything for sure because of their methodology --still interesting.

OXFORD, Mississippi (CNN) -- A national poll of people who watched the first presidential debate suggests that Barack Obama came out on top, but there was overwhelming agreement that both Obama and John McCain would be able to handle the job of president if elected.

Suzanne Garment from Forbes
says we all won

tis the morning after the first presidential debate. Tens of millions of people are delivering themselves of opinions about which senator won, and tens of thousands of them are actually getting paid for it. The instant opinions are almost wholly filtered through the lens of who the opiner wants to win the election. However, it is clear that a big winner has been us, the public discourse, the country. Yes, the foregoing sounds incredibly sappy; but it is probably the most important judgment that can be made about any political contest.


Slate says that the tie goes to Obama - This is becoming the "conventional wisdom" in the media.

We've learned recently that John McCain likes chaos. First there was his surprise pick of Sarah Palin, then there was his hold-onto-your-hats rush back to Washington this week. The first presidential debate could have used a little of that homegrown mayhem. It was a very sober and even exchange with nary a hint of serendipity.

Joe Kline for Time - You'll see this analysis repeated by partisans who favor Obama all week.

Toward the very end of tonight's debate—which was quite a good one, I believe—John McCain laid out his rationale in this election in just a few words: Senator Obama, he said, lacks the "knowledge and experience to be President." The presidency will turn on whether the American people agree with McCain on that—but on this night, Obama emerged as a candidate who was at least as knowledgeable, judicious and unflappable as McCain on foreign policy ... and more knowledgeable, and better suited to deal with the economic crisis and domestic problems the country faces.

National Review - You'll see this repeated by Republicans....

Oxford, Mississippi — A few minutes after the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama ended here on the campus of the University of Mississippi, I asked close McCain adviser Charlie Black whether Obama had performed as McCain’s debate team had anticipated.
“No, no,” Black said emphatically. “I never expected Sen. Obama to spend the entire debate on the defensive, and he did. He did.”

Maybe there was a tad of exaggeration in Black’s verdict, but there was some truth in it, too. Obama was smooth, unflappable, and just a little off balance for much of the evening. Worse for him, he seemed inexplicably eager to concede that McCain was right on issue after issue. A candidate determined to appear congenial might do that once, or even twice, but Obama did it eight times.



There are many many more good editorials out there. I haven't seen too many that are polemic either. So go check it out.

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