As a John McCain supporter, even I feel that Barack Obama came off as the victor in this debate, not necessarily by his own doing, but thanks to the overly aggressive tactics of McCain, which seemed to fail him repeatedly. Klein explains this point brilliantly when he says "McCain was clearly the aggressor in this debate and that may have worked to his advantage—Obama graciously admitted when he agreed with McCain; McCain rarely acknowledged Obama in that or any other way. The problem with McCain's aggressiveness was that it almost always involved misstating Obama's positions—on offshore drilling, nuclear power, talking to our enemies, raising taxes on the middle class, attacking Pakistan."
I must admit when first watching the debate, especially when discussing relations with Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries, Obama seemed almost nasty when responding to McCain, but the Republican nominee came off as so, almost condescending, towards Obama at points, that it was hard for almost anyone to pick up the Democratic nominee's extremely defensive manner.
One of the most interesting topics that arose in the debate came from the question "What is threat from Iran to the U.S.?" Obama brought up some fascinating points, including talking about how we should meet with allies and enemies. McCain criticized Obama for saying how he would sit down with Communist leaders of the world without "pre-conditions,"and while Obama seemed to skirt around the pre-conditions inquiry, he clearly explained why he would do it. Obama said that when the United States broke off ties with North Korea, that country increased their capabilities of nuclear war and violence, and how when we began to talk with them again they cleaned up (slightly). When McCain answered back, he seemed jumpy and off topic, including talking about height differences between citizens of North and South Korea, an answer that, in my mind, had little or nothing to do with the question.
My overall impression of the debate was very similar to that of Klein. I personally felt that while Obama wasn't perfect, he made less noticeable mistakes then McCain did, and refused to look rattled. Klein felt that "Obama did everything he had to do, with few if any mistakes. I thought McCain did less so." He then goes on to say that "the early snap polling seems to agree with me," and indeed, it seems the media agrees with him, Obama won the debate.
In fact, many news sources gave Obama the win. The Detroit Free Press had a fascinating article talking about how Obama won despite being "spanked" by McCain, insinuating that the media feels that Obama won, but McCain's tactics actually allowed him to not lose, but also not to win. "But what McCain doesn't understand is that a tie in the only debate he was expected to win could cost him the White House."
All the major media outlets were in Mississippi fir the debate, and all had several analysts to do the instant analysis. In fact, The Washington Post had live fact checkers researching and proving or disproving statements made by the candidates. It was front page news on all major news sources. Overall, the debate was big news, and since it was covered so well it was easy to see when the candidates failed to capitalize on opportunities to attack.
Obama was and continues to seem weak on foreign policy, but when he left the door open by not really improving on it for the debate, McCain chose to focus more on domestic policy, rather than really putting a stranglehold on the foreign policy issue. The debate was mostly more of the same. McCain failed to seize what could have been a big opportunity to control the debate. In the end, this seemed like a debate that McCain did way too much to help Obama win. The question now is how it affects the elections.
Work Cited
Brown, Willie. "Obama Wins Round 1" San Francisco Chronicle 28. Sept.2008. Accessed 30.Sept.2008. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/28/BAAG135POG.DTL>
Dobbs, Michael. "The Fact Checker" 26.Sept.2008. Accessed 30. Sept.2008. <http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/09/debate_live_fact_check_starts.html>
Klein, Joe. "Obama Wins Debate on Tactics and Strategies" Time 27.Sept. 2008. Accessed 29. Sept. 2008.<http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1845114,00.html>
Luna, Jorge. "Obama Wins Debate, But it Seems Unfair" Miami Law & Politics Examiner 27.Sept. 2008. Accessed 30. Sept. 2008. <http://www.examiner.com/x-948-Miami-Law--Politics-Examiner~y2008m9d27-Obama-wins-debate-but-it-seems-unfair>
Riley, Rochelle. "Obama Wins Debate After McCain Spanks Him" Detroit Free Press 27.Sept.2008. Accessed 30. Sept. 2008. <http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080927/BLOG08/80927012&imw=Y>
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