I usually don't watch presidential debates because they give me severe nausea, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, and all-around agita. But I watched last night anyhow. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.
Here's the quick encapsulated post-mortem: If you woke up yesterday prepared to vote for John McCain, you will still vote for John McCain after seeing the debate. If you woke up yesterday prepared to vote for Barack Obama, you will still vote for Barack Obama after seeing the debate. They both know their stuff—it just depends whose stuff you agree with.
But what about the Undecideds? Hmm. The polls this morning showed a bump for Obama. According to my new daily fix, poll aggregator/analyst extraordinaire FiveThirtyEight.com, debate-watchers thought that Obama “seemed to be the stronger leader” by a 49-43 margin. In one poll, Obama went from a +18 on
"understanding your needs and problems" before the debate to a +56 afterward! And he went from a -9 on "prepared to be president" to a +21. In other words, "Obama is opening up a gap on connectedness, while closing a gap on readiness." So that all sounds good to me.
Here's what I noticed, and I'm really, really trying to be objective:
First off, McCain looked like hell. He looked old. I never noticed his atrocious comb-over until last night—peh! He had on a striped tie that made me woozy. His dentures were squeaking and he was blinking nonstop for the whole 90 minutes. (I had some fun this morning imagining a YouTube mashup consisting of audio of Palin's insistence on "I won't blink" and video of McCain doing the blinky-blinky thing.) He looked not only uncomfortable but downright pissed off. He was even caught muttering, "Horseshit!" twice! [Update 9/28/08: Some are suggesting that it wasn't "Horseshit!" he was muttering, but "Course not!" or "Course you can!" What do you think?] Whenever he reminded himself to smile, it came out as a gruesome smirk, and more than once he did that goofy Dubya laugh. More importantly, he never once looked at Obama—I mean it, not once! Someone on Twitter said that Obama should have taken a minute to clinch the whole thing with, "Why can't you even look me in the eye, John?" Even the moderator, Jim Lehrer, urged, "Talk to each other!" (Another Twitterer said something along the lines of "You know what they say about a dog who won't make eye contact, don't you?") Was he afraid to meet Obama's eye? I don't think so. I read it as a blatant, rude snub.
Content-wise, McCain obviously knows what he's talking about—I don't doubt that. I disagree with his position on pretty much everything, but I don't think he's stupid. I think he made a big mistake talking about things that no one cares about, particularly earmarks. The first time he said, "Senator Obama just doesn't understand [something or other]," it was a very effective jab. But then he did it again. And again. Over and over. It became very easy for Obama to rebut with, "John, I do understand very well, but I disagree because..." and to explain himself.
McCain also took every possible opportunity to brag about all the places in the world he's visited and all the world leaders he's met, which would be a very shrewd tactic indeed if he hadn't chosen a running-mate who has been nowhere and met no one. Either it's important or it's not—you can't have it both ways. I wish someone would put that question to him directly.
How about Obama? He started off somewhat stiff, but then loosened up. He stammered on his answers more than once, though, which I'd never heard before. But for the most part, he appeared cool, calm, and collected—even more so because of how agitated McCain looked. I worry that he needs to dumb down his speech a little, though. Man, is he ever smart—but I'm afraid that might be off-putting to some. One thing that made me crazy was that he kept saying, over and over, "You're right, John, but..." and in fact, someone said that McCain already had an ad out this morning that featured Obama repeating, "You're right, John." I was shouting at Obama on the TV, "Stop it! You can be polite and respectful without actually uttering those words!" When McCain kept talking about how we're winning the war in Iraq, I wanted Obama to blast back with, "Against whom? Who exactly is losing the war?" He did nail McCain good when he reminded him that the war didn't begin with the surge in 2007; it began in 2003, when McCain assured everyone that it would be quick and decisive, we knew where the WMD were, etc. But I thought he could have pushed harder.
I liked many of the points Obama made, including mentioning the importance of restoring our reputation around the world and blaming McCain for being very much a part of the last 8 years of atrocious policy-making. He talked a lot about helping the middle class, which McCain forgot to do.
Well, I guess that wasn't so very objective, was it?
I Tweeted away throughout the debate, all the while keeping my eye on Twitter's new election-only feed. There were supporters on both sides making good points and silly points, but there was also a frightening amount of rabid, blatant racism. Why else would someone say they hate Obama? Disagree with him vehemently, I get that, but hate? I don't hate McCain, or even Sarah Palin, for that matter. (I'm pretty sure I do hate Karl Rove, but so does everyone.)