October 8, 2008
A Wash (Doug Heye)
Watching the debate last night, it was hard to determine a clear winner. (How do we determine who wins a debate, anyway?)
From the beginning, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) had difficulty communicating with the voters — those in the hall and those watching at home. Much of the conversation about Freddie and Fannie was too inside baseball and could have been about second-degree amendments and quorum calls rather than issues affecting every American. It is hard for a candidate (or candidates) to communicate with voters if they are talking about something the voters know little or nothing about.
This was a missed opportunity — one both McCain and Obama have generally done well on in the past.
Two words not used in last night's debate that were noticeably absent: Hillary Clinton. Several issues, notably Obama's willingness to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with no preconditions, provided an opportunity for McCain to exploit the division in the Democratic Party that still exists. For some reason, he never did.
Though much had been made about the "town hall" style of the last night's debate, the format was rather conventional. Audience interaction was limited and the questions were standard. I have a hard time believing that in an audience of Tennessee voters, Pakistan was more on their minds than issues like immigration, gun control, abortion or gay marriage.
The debate itself shed little light on the candidates' views on issues or the candidates themselves. With the exception of the final question — "What don't you know and how will you learn it?" — there were no personal stories, no introspection. It came off as a “Saturday Night Live” parody of a committee markup covered by C-SPAN. Watching the debate, one was hard-pressed to learn anything new about either candidate.
So far, the only debate-type event where we've really learned anything about either John McCain or Barack Obama was the Rick Warren debate at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.
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The public lost the debate. Several important subjects were left out. Abortion and illegal immigration were not bought up. That gave Barack a pass.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — October 8, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
Doug it was a "wash"out. Obama came across with more intelligent answers. You have been watching Fox News way too much. Polling consensus in the REAL world, which is not the Fox News world, gave the edge to Obama.
You, Doug, are white"wash", lossing over the Republican leveraging scam that is tanking your investments as we speak. Lol.
Comment by Gary Anderson — October 8, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
Illigal immigration is down now that the economy is tanking Rosencrans. That is a battle for another day.
Abortion, which I personally oppose, is just something that the government should stay out of. The government is having trouble just keeping the economy alive. God will judge people regarding their decisions to have abortions.
Banning abortions is not small government, it is big government. With the economy souring the desparation of some women will increase and there will be back alley abortions anyway.
My issue is that doctors should be able to act according to what they think is right. They should have that freedom.
Comment by Gary Anderson — October 8, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
Obama did quite well. I don't think Brokaw did a good job. He picked the questions, and I think he was a poor moderator. This debate should have been 90% on the economy; we already had the foreign policy debate. "It's the economy, stupid" as we learned a long time ago.
Comment by Joyce — October 8, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
The debate made no difference, which is good. The conventional wisdom is that it's good for Obama because he is ahead. The reality is it's good for McCain because he avoided erratic behavior.
Comment by Igor R. — October 8, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
Doug;
Next time you decide to write a column such as this, please don't.
Comment by Mike Coleman — October 8, 2008 @ 2:24 pm