Tonight’s debate between John McCain and Baraclk Obama was supposed to be about foreign policy.
After the tough week McCain had, though, the big question was how he would perform. So, how did he do?
He did very well. Obama did well but, I think, not quite as well as McCain. He was overly cautious.
But here’s what Obama did: He showed that he belonged on the stage. That was a very important political achievement.
Let’s take a look at some highlights.
Both men had pretty good openings. It was smart for Obama to link the economic crisis to the Bush administration.
It was smart for McCain to talk about bipartisanship in the development of a bailout plan.
And it was really smart for moderator Jim Lehrer to point out that neither man had answered his question: Do you support the bailout plan?
McCain and Obama were having none of that. We’re still not sure where they stand on the bailout.
McCain did a good job blasting overspending and earmarks. You could argue that he more effectively attacked Republicans than Obama did.
Obama missed a chance to nail McCain when the Republican nominee gave him an open-ended invitation to say how he defined who was “rich.”
That was a consistent problem for Obama. He was a little too restrained.
McCain on the other hand was anything but restrained. His proposal to freeze most spending will open up a new line of debate in this campaign. It will generate controversy.
That’s ok with McCain. He’s behind. He has to try to dominate the conversation.
It’s hard to argue that either man “won” the exchange on the war in Iraq. Both men stated their positions pretty well. You probably picked a winner based on your personal view of the war.
Obama appeared knowledgeable, however, on the policy choices in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was important for him to do that.
Obama scored points, in my view, in the discussion on Pakistan. He confidently explained the circumstances in which he would order an attack on Al Qaeda strongholds in that country.
Here’s the irony of this debate: Obama’s performance got stronger in the pure foreign policy segments of the debate. That’s the area in which Obama’s credentials have been called into question.
Presidential debates are odd political animals. This one was no exception.
McCain, I think, won the debate. He was bolder and scored more points on most of the topics.
However, Obama achieved some very important political goals. We may find in the coming weeks that that was enough to hand him a far more important victory: winning the general election.
Posted from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 10:50 p.m. EDT, Friday, September 26
As I watched the debate what I saw was your typical TV ADD. All John really did was to come back and come back to his years of experience. Every time when Barak reminded John that he had followed bush on some failed policies, John himself just gave a small smile and laugh and did not try to defend himself. He just talked about his old past victories. Wouldn’t really answer the questions. But Obama scored points with me because he reminded people that if you keep going like a bull in a china shop. you’ll break everything. Granted he really didn’t say that per say. But, thats what I heard.