to believe it was a stalemate, but that is just not the case. Obama appeared to be better prepared with his answers. He actually did answer more questions, truefully or not, than McCain. He also seemed to relate better to the casual viewer. I really wanted McCain to do better, but I just didn’t see it. I fear the worst.

due to its superior regular season record. Its not an off week or a draw.

A pet peeve of mine on the expanding use of the word “bye”.

I love reading your entries in Red State since I found this website. I was driving when McCain put out the line about Obama being second in funding from Fannie & Freddie, I thought that was the beginning of a long streak, I was wrong too.
Bye Moe, I think we’re going to have to get used to four years of Obama. God help us.

Carol

give up the ship!

What a monumental waste of time. Brokaw is not only boring himself, the questions he selected were Wonk City.

If they are going to have a townhall meeting, put everyone’s name in jar and start drawing names to ask whatever. These were nothing but stock questions READ by inept readers. Kinda reminded me of the “Questions” from the audience on Jay Leno.

on about how McCain was dissing Obama with his “that one” reference. I can’t watch anymore of the post debate spin. I get too disgusted.

I do wonder how many folks actually noticed the Obama comment on how he want to accomplish X “in his first term”. That’s screeched arrogance to me….but admittedly….I can’t stand the guy, so…

This has to be a constant theme for the next month-connect the dots on the origin of the mortgage and housing meltdown. And for goodness sakes keep naming names. People who are still on the fence need to be hit over the head.

I think McCain got some points with the jokes, but he was too nice for my liking. I guess he figured he’d let Obama act like the jerk, but he never set the record straight.

I tossed this up in Hotair but not sure if anyone can check this out. There was a questioner who asked McCain something at the end, he looked exactly like a NYC CBS anchor, even had the same last name. I wouldn’t put it past CBS to toss in a ringer that most of America wouldn’t know about. His brothers name is John Elliot and he works for CBS2 in NYC, theres a promo video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL2sflOsuTg he’s about 20 seconds in. Judge for yourself but I wouldn’t doubt the chances.

It make it boring and not very easy to pull any game-changers. Can we change the next debate to Palin vs Obama?

Is there anyone on RS who has a bit of clout with the McCain campaign? If so, please tell Senator McCain he has got to throw some dang punches! Our country probably won’t survive the next 4 years if O’bama gets elected.

Your candidate has to deliver a knockout blow in a debate and in the same day the Dow drops 500 pts. nasdaq drops 100 pts. and people are pissed because they a have lost 10-15% of the value in their investments. Who are they going to blame? The economy corrects itself and rebounds as a free market should! Yet, voters will blame the incumbant party in charge. Unfortunatley, almost half of Americans still think the R’s are in control of Congress. This is a very difficult position for McCain to be in. He is against a stiff political headwind this election cycle. Obama is an empty suit, yet he has a “D” next to his name and that gives him a big advantage.

What are the network saying?

I saw CNN viewer panel say it was split

Fox leaned to Obama

Other networks?

Obama was stumbling over words the whole debate. He even said that the policies of the last 8 years made us “more safe”!

Obama never recovered from McCain’s attack of tying him to Fannie/Freddie.

Obama dug a deep hole when he agreed with McCain that he would meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Remember, last week Joe Biden flatly denied it. Another ad perhaps?

Obama showed his lack of experience in the second half of the debate.

And he never rebutted McCain’s assertion that Obama would RAISE taxes.

I actually think that Barack Obama had more to prove than McCain. He didn’t.

Yes it was the dullest of debates, and
as a result, most people probably stopped watching half way through, if they started at all.

I predict this might end up being the least watched of the bunch.

I actually think because of what’s happening in the world Obama needed to show more than just the ability to spout talking points. With the financial, political, and geographical issues now hitting americans all at the same time, I believe they’re actually looking for somone that can be a steady hand.

Obama showed that he could answer some questions substantively, but only if McCain would answer those same questions first. In all other situations Obama rambled about something or just blamed Bush/McCain.

Several times Obama tried to be specific about issues or points, but in most cases they weren’t answers to the question asked.

No, I think that this may end up being an epic win for McCain, but not immediately. It will sink in that Obama really is a lightweight and that during our time of trial/tribulation we need someone we know.

Were there opportunities missed by McCain. I think so, several points he could have hit harder on or attacked Obama with. Honestly, though, unless McCain was going to announce a new middle-class tax cut, it wouldn’t have mattered. Nothing mentioned will be remembered, no single statement or thought mentioned, that is. Instead, we’re dealing with impressions left behind.

At this, I think McCain will ultimately come out ahead. This is because the troubles with our economy and the concerns around the world are all elevating beyond one administration or person. They are affecting people globally. When issue reach this level, one moves beyond change for change’s sake, but for change that is solidified by something tangible. This is where McCain wins.

Just my opionion as I peruse the political landscape.

I’m concerned about this mortgage plan McCain mentioned.

Is he talking about using my tax dollars to lower the cost of a house for some irresponsible schmoe who bought more house than he could afford and now can’t cover the mortgage? That’s what it sounded like.

If that’s what it is, I’m not happy with the proposal. It stinks of moral hazard, and rewards irresponsibility.

That’s not conservative. Conservative is letting people make their own choices, but asking them to be responsible for the consequences without having the government bail them out.

To the extent he’s taking federal tax dollars to protect people from the consequences of their freely entered into decisions, he’s taking a page from the socialist playbook, and I am 100 thousand percent against that.

please have a laugh on me

`

I thought he did a great job. He seemed aggressive and his manner made me confident in what he was saying, and what his intentions were

Obama would make a very dangerous one.

McCain needs to run against Congress and let Palin run against Obama.

My but was that a boring debate!!

Not what we needed.

I think tonight several things were in play to make this not a great one for McCain.
First I think the questions were limiting. The canidates needed better material to work with.

Secondly, these two don’t seem to do well with Town Hall style. Especially McCain, I think the standard debate is more his style.

Thirdly, McCain needs to name names more, start defending the Republican Party. I love the Maverick but he is biting the hand that feeds him. He needs to get over working across the aisle and instead start extending his foot across the aisle to kick some democratic donkey.

Lastly, a lot of prayer would be good right now. God is going to give us the leader we need. For such a time as this, we are called to serve, both McCain and Palin come to this game with a servant’s heart, those are the ones that you want to have serving in the White House. To me Obama is a just an angry man seeking power, those type of people don’t prosper, they end up falling to ruin, check out the ancient Roman rulers.

…for McCain to make the whole debate a slugfest, but he missed a golden opportunity at the end.  The “What do you not know?” question was that moment. 

Sen. McCain had already built up his national security street cred at that moment, so he should have turned it around on Barry. 

McCain should have said that he doesn’t know how Barack Obama has justified associating with Ayers, and that such an association dramatically calls into question Obama’s judgment.

No doubt Brokaw would have extended more time to Barry, but McCain could have used the ensuing extended discussion to highlight troubling details of the relationship.

This debate had all the excitement and substance of a late night infomercial for a device that chops vegetables.

But unlike some others, I don’t believe that McCain really needed a knock-out here. The Ayers, Rezko stuff is going to be coming front and center in coming days, and this was not really a good forum to do that.

McCain will come away if media treats him right with much from this debate. Was this a horse race where you have a clear winner? In the sense of immediate gratification, it was possibly nose to nose though in my opinion McCain had more substance.

Time was on his side on several key issues–most of all on the Freddie/Fannie points he made. That will resonate with Americans, especially his choice of the words ‘real catalyst,’because that’s exactly what the GSEs were.

On Obama’s ‘intervene’ moment, I viewed this as a gaffe of epic proportions. To intervene is to change the outcome. And we certainly changed the outcome of the Holocaust, despite FDR having to back off his promise to American mothers to not send their sons to a war in Europe.

Admittedly, we were slow to come around,
but there weren’t sophisticated intelligence capabilities then. It had to be proven. And FDR knew the hardship it would bring to us and what it would cost us. I think that’s why I get so mad sometimes–I heard stories firsthand, of my uncles who fought and of how my family sacrificed. And sometimes I think the world forgets what we give and we pay for.

No way will Obama look out for Israel like McCain will, not with the weak leadership in Dem party in Congress.

On Obama’s Pakistan moment, I can’t believe he did it again. McCain responded with wisdom, to not telegraph your plans.

Obama also made a mistake I plan to point out in my column–mandatory screenings. Many Americans do not like the word mandatory. *And he never answered the fine question! We conserv bloggers should all ask that question on a specified day and maybe someone will call him on that. A fine for not having a scope or insurance? Give me a break. What does that sound like to you?

Obama focused on reducing energy needs and hit the fossil fuels issue. McCain took an all of the above approach and this will resonate with people.

I soooo wish McCain had slammed O with the Kerry-Schumer-McCaskill letter that put Iraqi oil in China’s hands when Iraq really wanted to work with US and Western companies. This will really piss people off–a blogger wrote about it here and I did commentary too and got tons of readers today.

There’s so much substance McCain can incorporate into his narrative:

Obama=big taxes, mandatory cancer screenings (over my dead body will he force me to have unnecessary medical care and that isn’t something I want to debate), a barrier to ‘drill, baby, drill,’ etc.

And while I’m harping (I’m arguing with my husband right now about politics so I know this all sounds loopy), I so wish McCain would say, when O brings up the deficit–George Bush and our economy dealt with 9-11, Katrina (big FEMA bucks) and the Fannie/Freddie fiasco.

McCain’s idea on League of Democracies is excellent. He should call it the League of Allied Democracies (LEAD). And it should be a cooperative alliance in every sense of the word–common values, common goals.

His take on cutting spending [memo to McCain: buzz word is DOWNSIZING or BUDGET Slashing–I personally love those terms) big plus.

There is so much narrative there for McCain if he’ll just run with the ball.

My husband says it was a tie. I don’t.

In my opinion, McCain won on substance, got the last words in several times and had O demanding extra time (Dems just can’t follow the rules!)

Gawd, I’d hop on a plane tomorrow if I could have just an hour or two with our candidate. He has the advantage in my opinion especially with the press finally coming around on a few matters.

I think he did good and I think polls may reflect that in coming days.

Also think polls are skewed, tho. I don’t trust the O campaign on anything right now.

BTW Palin drew 10,000 people today–7,000 at the Landing and 3,000 for the fundraiser. Crowds loved her and she put a heckler in his place with great skill.

We heart Sarah Palin.

Now we gotta’ blog all this and push our narrative. We’ve seen results of this massive cohesion among conservatives, finally catching up to the liberal blather.

This was good day for GOP. IMO.

best!
Kay

McCain should’ve said that Davis was a hired gun for Fannie Mae just as any lawyer is or something similar then said Obama hired Johnson and Pfitzker who WERE the subprime lenders who caused this mess. How can we trust Obama to solve this crisis when he is hiring the people who caused it? Then mentioned Dodd and others who were supposed to regulate Fannie getting sweetheart loans from Angelo. Would’ve loved to seen Obama respond to that attack.

McCain needs to bring in Betsy McCaughey to go over health care.

When Obama mentioned taxing corporations, McCain should have given a lesson in Econ 101 and asked who do you think does the hiring and provides the 401k plans? Then he should’ve mentioned what the average worker for an oil company makes and how they are higher paying blue collar jobs.

From the transcript:
Obama: “If we could have intervened effectively in the Holocaust, who among us would say that we had a moral obligation not to go in?”

How many American soldiers (& British, French & Russian for that matter!) died because we DID “go in”?

If any Repub had said this, it would be front page headline on every newspaper in the country tomorrow!

He comes off looking weak when he mentions Ayers on the trail and then ducks doing it to Obama’s face. If it is a valid issue to question Obama’s character then why not use it to his face?

Then he speaks correctly about government intervention while also saying the government should nationalize real estate by purchasing mortgages and re-selling them at a lower value to the tune of billions.

I just don’t get it.

Offered by a crowd member ‘representing one of America’s own’, by one past public servant to another, during the question of foreign policy and questions of security, and agreed upon by a man who struggles with handshakes due to his own past public service protecting American security….was powerful.

Offered by a crowd member ‘representing one of America’s own’, by one past public servant to another, during the question of foreign policy and questions of security, and agreed upon by a man who struggles with handshakes due to his own past public service protecting American security….was powerful.

…for anyone counting on the “remember how far the polls had Kerry ahead in ’04″:

http://tinyurl.com/4abedh

Just wasn’t the case, esp a month out. Oh, and the economy was in a bit better shape four years ago, too.

What a mess.

will not be known for several days.

Sen. McCain, doing the job the partisan press refuses to do, introduced too much material for the American public to digest at one time.

Offhand comment:

I also have to comment how flagrant B.O. broke the rules, such as the follow up, and compare them to John McCain’s steadfast defense to his own adaptability of the unfolding civility forced by ‘that one’.

B.O. is reckless in his choices.

McCain stands up and defends what he believes is right when it’s right.

B.O. is aggressive with little disregard to preagreed upon civility.

McCain went out of his way to be an adult.

I agree that there needs to be an old fashion free for all debate. Tom Brokaw and Ifill and their market driven opinionated manipulative handlers in the media need not choose the questions.

Let ‘em debate old fashioned style, while we make up our own minds on the next individual to make choices for our children. Let ‘em communicate to us directly instead of through an intermediary with hidden agendas. Let us make a decision on them based upon their pearly white teeth and acting abilities; strong camera poses; their mathematical tax proposals; and social views.

This debate style was proposterious.

I agree on Pagan Power that this debate shows some of the DARK CHARACTERS OF OBAMA, in addition to Obama’s Grim Holocaust Theory.

Pagan Power has a NEW NAME FOR Obama:

Interrupter in Chief

Here is the gist of Pagan’s assessment.

Obama has zero integrity. He agrees to a debate forum and when things aren’t going his way he suddenly wants to change the rules to his advantage. We witnessed this during the second debate at least twice. So much so that McCain, someone who actually respects the rules he agrees to, had to interject himself and demand equal time. But this is vintage Obama. He says one thing and when the political winds shift he abruptly changes his mind. This is the trademark of an opportunist despot, ever willing to use style to blind…

Reference: Interrupter In Chief

I am on vacation in FL, but I just had to take a “time-out” and comment on this debate.

I thought that McCain had a really good night tonight. McCain came out swinging on the economy (an issue that he’s perceived to be weak on) and, I think, he was more convincing than Obama was when discussing this issue. (I loved McCain’s “jello” line.) McCain also dominated Obama on foreign policy, and Obama looked like a fool when discussing Pakistan. McCain also had much better arguments on energy policy. The only section of the debate that I thought that Obama won was health care.

Furthermore, I thought that McCain shared a very authentic and touching moment with that Naval petty officer (my brother was in the Navy), and I thought that McCain’s closing statement was excellent and very memorable. I don’t recall Obama having any real “memorable” moments in this debate.

Like most people here, the government sponsored mortgage fix killed me. It appeared to kill people over at the NRO too. But, like they said, this is what happens when you pick a non-conservative to carry the conservative football.

I think I fell into the Dick Morris trap in that I really expected McCain to shake things up in DC, and eventually come out supporting a conservative alternative. That’s obviously far from the truth now. Since I think spin is everything – I really don’t like how this will likely be played to a country who wanted nothing to do with the bailout in the first place.

McCain was fairly solid in other areas. He still needs a better pitch for health care (which Obama is running ads non stop about here in Michigan). I thought we saw Obama’s arrogance and messiah-complex in full bloom. But ultimately, had I not been following 2 live blogs at once, I’d have probably welcomed Mr. Sandman as well.

TB should have cut them off rather than let them prattle if he was so concerned about time. He’d have been doing us a favor. We need questions in the final debate about abortion and gun control.

Otherwise, I do agree that a KO wasn’t likely in this format, but I needed more from McCain that I got, and I think the middle ground voter probably feels the same way. The final debate must include a conversation about Ayers started by McCain, as well as more focus on his foolish spending and tax proposals.

Here’s your slugfest

I hope that helps (seek counseling).