Debate Off

The first presidential debate, set against the backdrop of great national financial crisis, arising from the all-for-nothing drama of the McCain campaign, considered to be a major factor in determining 4 out of 10 voters’ decision at the ballot box*, pitting a fiery, off the cuff speaker against a cool, cerebral intellect (you can guess who was who), ultimately came to…an undecided outcome. Newspapers all have a differing opinion as to who was the winner, and different writers for the same newspaper disagree even more. The Iowa Electronic Markets barely registered a blip. It’s amazing, but I think this represents a win for McCain.
Consider the past week. The world started to discover that Sarah Palin has no idea what she’s talking about. McCain seems to have failed to impress the public with his heroics, trying to rush back to D.C. and single-handedly put together a bailout package. It should also be noted that McCain probably tired himself out with all this drama, and that standing through a 90-minute debate is especially exhausting when you’re already 72. Consider that Obama should be able to link any major catastrophe (Wall Street) to the governing Republic party (McCain). Not only that, but recent news has found strong ties between McCain and our now-defunct financial giants, Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae. And that while this was supposed to be the foreign policy debate, an advantage for McCain, it ended up being 50-50 with the economy, an area in which voters place more faith in Obama. Plus, Obama is hands down the better orator, while McCain seemed to break out a few too many rehearsed phrases (my favorite one involving the letters K, G, and B). That Obama was not able to decisively win the debate comes as a disappointment. It was a missed opportunity for the Democratic team to permanently link all this bad news to the McCain ticket.
I will say that the overall quality of the debate was better than four years ago; the candidates did, on occasion, and after a little prodding, address each other directly. In terms of how much fun these debates are, though, I’m looking forward to Thursday night.



Sources:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247204209780953.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28rich.html?th&emc=th
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28dowd.html?th&emc=th
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/us/politics/29campaign.html?th&emc=th

*Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll