27 September 2008

Presidential Debate thoughts


McCain on points... no Knockout blows in Round 1.

If you want to know how I spent my evening, The State has the roundup. Don't miss the video...

How far to the right did Barack Obama shift before last night's debate? All of a sudden, he's trying to sound like a neocon - giving Ukraine and Georgia NATO membership, calling Iran a terror sponsor, and calling Israel our staunchest ally. If he had come out like that in the Dem debates, we would've been watching someone else on stage last night. All part of the show, I suppose...

McCain did a better job of defining his opponent than Obama did last night. Obama tried to make this the "Bush/McCain" term, and did OK doing it. McCain solidly (and repeatedly) made the point that Obama is too dangerously naive to be President.

There was one clear loser in this debate: Jim Lehrer. I kept expecting him to handout boxing gloves or brass knuckles while trying to get the two to attack each other. After last night, I wouldn't be surprised if PBS got it's federal funding eliminated to help pay for the bailout package...

Every debate moderator has to live up to the memory of Tim Russert (and the surprisingly solid forum performance of Pastor Rick Warren). Lehrer fell far short of those considerations last night.

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