Presidential Debate #1 9/26/08

[KingVoyeur]

Here we go, the first presidential candidates debate is here! This Friday, Obama and McCain will debate at the University of Mississppi with the focus being on foreign affairs. The debate will be moderated by PBS' Jim Lehrer. How do you think it will go? Currently Obama is leading McCain in the polls by a slim margin. Who's gonna come out on top?

Candidates prepping for first debate (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5857679&page=1)

[Kaeos]

Alright so my bias is no secret. Here's how I see it coming down.

I think Obama will first and foremost run circles around McCain verbally. You've have to not be paying attention on purpose to miss how McCain has been stumbling around questions and issues over the last few months and particularly in the past few weeks. He consistently comes off as confused when he speaks.

I think Obama will probably play it cool and rational and his only downside when he speaks is the constant pauses he takes to collect his thoughts.

When the thing heats up I see Obama beginning to take small slashes at McCain and goading him into responding to thinly veiled attacks. This is a bad thing for McCain because of his notorius temper. Frankly I can see McCain becoming frustrated, stammering and get hot under the color.

There's not way this debate can work out well for McCain without a major screw up on Obama's part.

Just my opinion.

[rappites]

I totally agree.

I hope McCain does not lock his knees or he may pass out.

[tstone]

McCain is former military. He knows about the knee lock thing.

[Kaeos]

T - I still giggle every time I see your signature.:D

[tstone]

It was worth preserving for posterity, man. Well done.

:D

[rappites]

John McCain wants to post-pone the debate and Obama says no way.

[TrixieB]

The debate commission also says that it will be going ahead. I am thinking that they may actually change the topic of the debate to the economy. That would be the smart thing to do.

[Kaeos]

Hearing right now that the President has invited both candidates to the White House to meet with other high level Senators on the "bail out crisis"

This thing is twisting and turning at breakneck pace.

[Kaeos]

Anyone else here on the board while we watch the debate?

[whitetemplar78]

im here, and watching the debates

[Kaeos]

sup. this is fascinating.

[whitetemplar78]

yah, gone after each other alot more then I thought, lol did you see that one look Obama shot McCain, mannn you know he was cussing him out in his head.

[Kaeos]

Yeah, and actually, that's my one qualm with Obama here - he's too damn nice. I could see the storm behind his eyes, but he's being too nice.

Obama should be jumping down McCain's throat and brow beating him. He's not hitting hard enough.

[whitetemplar78]

mmmmmm......Iran has lite the fire under them both...wow, Obama good point Adma blah blah, whatever his name, isn't the true ruler of Iran, but I wonder if he thinks that the Mullahs will even want to talk to us?...they are the hardest anti americans in the country...mmmm.... McCain had a point about sitting across from this idiot too though....ugghh over all Iran is gonna be a headache for whoever

[Kaeos]

Its amazing to see McCain all the sudden having this long term memory of international conflicts over the last 40 years, given his inability to pronounce names correctly in the past year. It's like a weird short term memory problem.

...When I was your age I walked 20 miles in the snow with no shoes...

McCain is scoring a lot of "zingers" and pot shots on the context of some of Obama's statements, Obama is not taking the same pot shots and attacking context as hard as McCain is.

[whitetemplar78]

wow, ok so far I was leaning towards Obama making some good scores, but one worry I did have was Russia, and damn McCain just tore into him, about his first statments, and then went on to paint a veryyyy detailed picture of the whole region, and its problems, pointing Urkrine, and the oil line through Georgia being the main reason for Russian aggression. Obama had no choice but to back off, and agree, which he did, then he turned it towards energy again, which was a bad move, it showed a weakness of his, foreign affairs.

[Kaeos]

Well I see what your saying, Obama did need to change the subject on that one, but think about this from the perspective of the average viewer, that whole.....six minute Russian history lesson from McCain is can only leave most folks going jees is uncle John still babbling?

[whitetemplar78]

yes, thats a worry, but using my GF as a judge, she's not really into politics, or any of this, and she watched it, and turned to me and said, "wow he really knows his shit on Russia, doesn't he?" ...lol course she followed that by didn't russia fall after the cold war?....yahh but anyways, he may come off as knowing his shit too though. Tough call though, tough.

[Kaeos]

If the debate as whole is judged on zingers and pot shots and attacks that hit hard, then I say McCain won this one. That doesn't make him right, and I think on the economic piece at the beginning he floundered pretty hard.

Basically McCain is successfully laying out his reasons why we should NOT vote for Obama. Obama is really only connecting on why we SHOULD vote for him. He is going to have to hit harder if he wants to win the debates against McCain, he needs to start hitting harder on why we should NOT vote for McCain.

I'll admit I was wrong on my initial assessment, McCain did not lose his cool. Credit to him.

[Intelligent_Design]

John McCain wants to suspend all spending except for millitary? Damn who are we gonna fight? The Romulans? Thats alot of money.

[whitetemplar78]

Hmmm.... yah, over all McCain was ALLOT more aggresive then I first thought he would be. But over all I'll sum it, and then see what you think. Unlike some people that post here, I do care what others think, makes me look at my view over and over again, keeps me thinking...lol.

1. Bailout issues- on this one, they both tended to hold their cards close to their chests on this one, I felt both were waiting to see how the chips fall on this one, before they commit.

.......Part B of that though, is it allowed McCain to hammer on spending, and how government is fucked up beyond belief on this, and how its gotten out of control...Made some strong points. Obama came out with his tax plans, and how the tax code is messed, loved how he hammered on the Business Tax loop holes that are the real reason companys DON'T pay the 2nd highest tax in the world, Good Job on that one.

Score- Tie both had good strong points one with spending issues, and one with tax plans.

2. Iraq- Here is where they got to the Point of the whole debate at last, Foreign Issues. Here McCain pointed out that the Surge worked, and we will walk away with a victory, good point....butttt Obama came after him here on this, pointing out his past supports, and statements on the war, but most important he NAILED him on Afghanistan, and how we've have dropped the ball there, he made some strong points on that one, and I thought took it from McCain on that, though McCain did make some points with deal with Pakistan, and not attacking them.

Score- Obama, this was his bread and butter, and got McCain on this one.

3. This then led on to Iran, here it started to get passionate and this is where McCain really started to go after Obama, and I think it was getting to Obama at this point, you could see it in his face, too much smirk, and frowns, McCain made strong points of not dealing with Iran due to the fact that this countrys leaders realllllly want to Blow up Israel, and us if they can get away with it. Obama got caught on this with talking to Irans head loon, and McCain got a good zinger on that, one of the few that hurt.

Score- McCain took this one, on pure attack alone, really went after him, and pointed out the weakness of trying to talk to crazy countrys.

4. Russia- Already pointed this out, so won't go in depth, McCain really showed his knowledge, and Obama was left with little choice but to agree with most of it.

..........Part B of this was how it led into energy, here again McCain went on the attack, the Nuclear statements about reusing waste, and so on, and pointed out his FIRST view on off shore drilling, again strong attack threw Obama off his game.

Score- McCain, come on, his Putin statement "when I look into Putins eyes, I see 3 letters K-G-B..." that did make me laugh, clever.

5. Overall- Obama started strong in this, made some good economy points, and tore into McCain on Iraq, then he backed off, and as Kaeos put it he needed to go after McCain MORE!! he didn't, and I think that hurt him over all, McCain went after him hard, and hammered on spending problems, pointing out tax cuts of Obama's carried increased spending, then he went after expereince BIG TIME, to sum it up, he went after Obama's weakness's well, while Obama didn't return the favor. Over all I think McCain finished strong, and that carried the debate into his favor.

[Space Tycoon]

Both candidates are wrong about Russia. Both support expansion of NATO, which is unacceptable to Russia's legitimate security concerns; and both think that Russia "invaded" Georgia, when in fact they were responding to aggression against Russian citizens in two semi-independent states.

Obama is right on Iraq, but wrong on Afghanistan/Pakistan. He seems to be completely sold on this idea that Iraq was the "wrong" war, but Afghanistan is the "right" one. Sending lots of US troops into Waziristan would open up a new hornet's nest and make the situation in Pakistan much graver.

Obama's take on Iran was somewhat better. McCain is wrong on all three counts.... :ohwell:







.

[Space Tycoon]

McCain made strong points of not dealing with Iran due to the fact that this countrys leaders realllllly want to Blow up Israel, and us if they can get away with it.

No, they don't. :shakehead:









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[Intelligent_Design]

No matter who you are voting for every has to admit this was a pretty good debate. I can't wait for the next one. Hey Kaeos Obama is playing this thing from the ahead position thats why I think he didn't go on the attack. He didn't think he had too. I bet if the polls shift he will bring the knives out.

[Kaeos]

Templar, dude, I wanna buy you a beer. I completely agree with your assessment sir.

Interesting notes post debate. Before the two men had even left the stage, McCain's campaign posted a youtube video with clips of all the times Obama said "I agree with the Senator" amazingly the video started with "I'm John McCain and I approve of this message"......how...did he approve the message when he was still on stage?

So in other words he gave his campaign carte blanch to spit out whatever they wanted to immediately following the debate. Funny.

Breaking news - McCain all but admitted - despite previous assertions to the contrary - that we DID in fact torture prisoners. "I will make sure that we have better trained interrogators so that we make sure that we never, ever torture a prisoner of war AGAIN."

Let in interpretation commence!!

Amazingly, none of the networks seem to be "calling" it for either candidate. remarkable restraint.:smirk:

Good hanging out with you tonight Templar :cool:

[Intelligent_Design]

Both candidates are wrong about Russia. Both support expansion of NATO, which is unacceptable to Russia's legitimate security concerns; and both think that Russia "invaded" Georgia, when in fact they were responding to aggression against Russian citizens in two semi-independent states.

Obama is right on Iraq, but wrong on Afghanistan/Pakistan. He seems to be completely sold on this idea that Iraq was the "wrong" war, but Afghanistan is the "right" one. Sending lots of US troops into Waziristan would open up a new hornet's nest and make the situation in Pakistan much graver.

Obama's take on Iran was somewhat better. McCain is wrong on all three counts.... :ohwell:







.

Its all lip service Nothing will be done to any BRIC nation. And Pakistan is a nuclear power. We have no say with them either.

[whitetemplar78]

Templar, dude, I wanna buy you a beer. I completely agree with your assessment sir.

Interesting notes post debate. Before the two men had even left the stage, McCain's campaign posted a youtube video with clips of all the times Obama said "I agree with the Senator" amazingly the video started with "I'm John McCain and I approve of this message"......how...did he approve the message when he was still on stage?

So in other words he gave his campaign carte blanch to spit out whatever they wanted to immediately following the debate. Funny.

Breaking news - McCain all but admitted - despite previous assertions to the contrary - that we DID in fact torture prisoners. "I will make sure that we have better trained interrogators so that we make sure that we never, ever torture a prisoner of war AGAIN."

Let in interpretation commence!!

Amazingly, none of the networks seem to be "calling" it for either candidate. remarkable restraint.:smirk:

Good hanging out with you tonight Templar :cool:

lol, thanks, over all good debate, McCain kept his cool, and Obama was well spoken as ever, but ID's right I think this attacking worked towards McCain, so next debate the "gloves" come off. And thanks Kaeos great hangin with you also, as aways good points, by the way never had a chance to say it, cause of double shifts at work but AWSOME post about the Mortgage crisis hands down, one of the BEST posts on here to date, next debate, WE NEED MORE PEEPS TO COME IN, SPACE, TSTONE, FASTCAR, ID, ALL OF YOU, COME ON WE'LL MAKE IT A DATE!!...but Kaeos buys....heh

[KingVoyeur]

This was the first debate I actually watched all the way through, very interesting. Both made good points and showed some obvious weaknesses.

I found the style of the debate very interesting. I really like Jim Lehrer moderating, it was like he was their therapist. "Ok John, tell Barack how you feel." :lol: Neither candidate got it at all for like the first 15 minutes, I guess they just needed to relax a little. I did find it very interesting that no matter how much Lehrer prodded him, and no matter how much Obama spoke to him directly, McCain never once looked at Obama or addressed him directly. I think that's pretty telling.

It's like candidates and politicians in general have been so well-trained in speaking into a camera and debating with someone else that's in another little box on the screen that they've forgotten how to directly talk to one another or have a conversation. I guess it's just a product of our media-saturated society but I hope that changes. :ohwell:

The debate I'm really looking forward to is next week's VP debate. I think both Biden and Palin are a little nuts, so it should be fun. I'll be sittin there with a box of popcorn! :popcorn:

[tstone]

Would loved to have watched this one with you guys, but I'm on a different schedule at present. Come election 2012, probably be able to do it with youse guys.

[TrekSucksHard]

As the experts say: debates don't sway a whole lot of people since everybody has already made their minds up so I didn't watch too much of it.

PS: I don't watch Fox News. PWNED! :lol:

[Space Tycoon]

I have to say: the left relies a little too heavily on this whole "Fox News" thing. As far as I am concerned, the entirety of the American media suffers from many of the same delusions.

Fox is simply the most extreme and hard-line of them all.






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[tstone]

"We report, you decide."

*snicker*

[TrixieB]

I talked to several people this weekend who said that they watched this debate intently. I don't really think that it would have swayed their vote one way or the other, but they were very interested in what happened. I watched it all and listened to every word, but I'm a political junkie. I needed my fix.

[WhiteKnight]

I'm in agreement with all that this was a very good debate. I found myself agreeing with both candidates at certain points, so I'm actually even more undecided than I was before I saw it.

Friday was the first time I personally saw Obama answering questions instead of taking them round the dance floor, although I thought both of them side stepped Lehrer's question on how the bailout would affect their decisions if elected.

Don't know what channels you all were watching the debate on, but CBS did a poll of audience members to guage their reactions as the night wore on. The biggest pop of the night was for Obama when he went after McCain on his record on the Iraq invasion. It was the part where he said McCain was wrong when he supported the administration after they said there were Al Qaeda in Iraq, they would find WMD and that it would not take long to secure Iraq. Personaly I agreed with McCain that the next president will have to decide what to do next, not be worried about whether or not it was the right choice to go in in the first place, but the people in the poll were certainly swayed by Obama.

The idiot box also kept saying that this was McCain's strong suit and that he was expected to do well. As such, I really must see the next one to see if one can emerge as a candidate who more clearly reflects what I want in a candidate. If both do as well in the next two debates I'll be hard pressed to pick between them and will probably stick to Hillary as a write in. That was the plan for quite awhile, but having thought about it for quite awhile I decided I need to vote for someone who has a real shot at winning and has a chance at making a difference in this fucked up country.

[Andrewb87]

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