This entry was posted on 10/15/2008 7:59 PM and is filed under 2008 Election, All Posts.
Final Thoughts:
Obama won the debate by being the adult in the room: again. McCain had more passion, and that passion makes this debate closer than the other two, but the passion quickly mutated into plain anger. He simply could not control himself, and he lost the debate because of it.
10:26pm Final remarks:
McCain: "We have to do better than the last 8 years." Thanks, Sen. McCain, for fighting this administration and the havoc they have wrought the last 8 years. Oh, wait...
Obama: "The biggest risk we could take is continue the same policies of the past 8 years for another 4."
10:19pm Sorry, I've just fallen asleep during the education section. Waking up...
10:13pm Obama seamlessly explains his opposition to the Born Alive act, explaining that there was already a law on the books protecting infants surviving abortion, and that the Illinois AMA also opposed the bill. He then speaks of "common ground" on abortion, and that no one is pro-abortion. McCain almost jumps out of his seat. McCain can't talk about "common ground" sitting next to his opponent, because he clearly hates him.
10:09pm Obama reminds us about Lili Ledbetter, the equal pay case that the USSC ruled against, and that McCain opposed.
10:05pm Schieffer asks if either of them would nominate a Supreme Court justice who differs with their position on Roe v. Wade. McCain goofs saying that "Obama voted against Justice Breyer". I believe he was just out of Harvard at that point.
10:04pm Free Joe The Plumber!
10:02pm Obama nails McCain's $5,000 credit with "the average policy is $12,000 annually".
9:58pm McCain turns to the camera for the first time tonight, to address his "friend, Joe the plumber." Can someone please remind McCain that the only man who has even met "Joe the plumber" is Sen. Obama?
9:57pm I think I've heard McCain snort, harrumph, cough, wheeze, or sigh about 300 times tonight during Obama's answers.
9:56pm Obama, directly to the camera: "If you've got health insurance, you don't have to do anything. All we're going to do is lower costs. And if you don't have health insurance, we're going to allow you to buy into the same health insurance plan that Sen. McCain and I enjoy." Awesome.
9:55pm John McCain just compared Barack Obama to Herbert Hoover. I repeat: John McCain just compared Barack Obama to Herbert Hoover.
9:52pm McCain: "Sen. Obama has never traveled south of our border." Sen. McCain, if you want to make the case that Obama is some American-bound, isolationist who isn't exotic or foreign enough for you, please: GO AHEAD.
9:50pm Yep, McCain is still pissed. Which voters does he think this pissy attitude is winning over?
9:47pm Obama: "I believe that in the next 10 years, we can completely eliminate dependence on Middle Eastern foreign oil." He's talking to the camera, calmly, intelligently, thoroughly, speaking extemporaneously on energy issues for several minutes without talking down to his audience, or bothering to attack or even mention his grumpy rival across the table.
9:46pm I believe Sen. McCain has turned every single answer to every single question Schieffer has asked him tonight into an attack on his rival within the second sentence.
9:44pm Obama's twists the knife back on the special needs issue, saying that an "across-the-board spending freeze" would hurt studying the cause of autism.
9:42pm Obama describes Biden's attributes in broad, sweeping policy detail on both domestic and foreign policy issues, and personal story as well. All McCain seems to be able to get out is "she's a reformer", "special needs", and "her husband's a tough guy, too."
9:40pm Schieffer asks why each of their veep choices are better than their opponent's. This should be good.
9:38pm "All of the details need to be known about Sen. Obama's association with Ayers and ACORN. And my campaign is about getting the economy moving." All in the same breath, people. Unbelievable.
9:37pm Obama's answer on his "associations" is gold. "It says more about your campaign than me."
9:34pm Obama: "What we can't do is characterize each other as bad people." McCain immediately follows that with the introduction of William Ayers, and "possibly the greatest perpretation of fraud in our democracy." Wow.
9:32pm McCain "won't stand" for "veterans" being maligned who come to his rallies. No one has done that in the Obama campaign, Senator. "There's been some t-shirts..."??? T-SHIRTS, McCain?!
9:30pm McCain: "I did not hear a repudiation of Congressman Lewis". Obama brings up the shouts of "terrorist" and "kill him" and how Palin said nothing to condemn those remarks. McCain is pisssssed. Obama reminds McCain that his campaign did say the comparison btwn George Wallace and McCain was a wrong one. Obama is coming off like the adult, McCain is coming off like an angry toddler wiggling around in his chair.
9:27pm Obama: "The American people, the polls show, 2/3rds of them say that you're running a negative campaign, John. Studies show that 100% of your ads are negative. 100%."
9:26pm McCain responds by instead of making those charges to Obama's face, just listing all the shitty things Obama's campaign has said about McCain. I think that was a missed opportunity for McCain.
9:24pm Schieffer tees it up: "Will you say to each other's faces what your campaigns have said about each other." McCain kicks it off with his pathetic excuse that if they'd just done townhalls together, it didn't have to be that way.
9:23pm Gosh, McCain just sounds relentlessly pissed.
9:22pm Obama's answer on what he's gone against his party over—tort reform, charter schools, and clean-coal—was tight.
9:20pm McCain seems to include the phrase "energy independence" in almost every other sentence, whether we're discussing the mortgage crisis, taxes, or job creation. We haven't gotten to the energy section of the debate.
9:19pm McCain: "Sen. Obama, I am not President Bush. If you want to run against Pres. Bush, you should have run four years ago."
9:18pm Obama: "An across-the-board spending freeze is a hatchet, not a scalpel. And we need a scalpel."
9:18pm No planetariums!
9:16pm McCain should really avoid phrases like "during the Depression era, we had...". Oh, great, he just announced his "across-the-board spending freeze"! Music to the ears of the middle-class voter who depends on some form of government spending.
9:12pm Although I couldn't disagree more with McCain, he is showing some fire with the tax discussion.
9:10pm "Class warfare" makes it out of McCain's mouth! "Why would you want to raise anyone's taxes?" Why, Sen. McCain do you want to make me pay taxes on my health care benefits?
9:09pm "What I said to Joe the plumber, 5 years ago, you were in need of a tax cut then."
9:07pm Wow, McCain is already out of the gate attacking Bush over the "spread the wealth" comment Obama made in Ohio. He must have been reading the New York Post this morning like I was. It's not at all related to the mortgage crisis discussion, obviously a canned attack McCain wanted to dump out before he forgot it.
9:04pm McCain spoke to Bob Scheiffer in his first answer. Obama is speaking to the camera. "What we haven't yet seen is a rescue package for the middle class." Obama is good at rattling off the specifics in of his mortgage rescue proposal.
9:02pm "It's good to see you again, Sen. Obama."
9:01pm 9-minute time sections for each question? This should be good.
