McCain lost this debate harder than Palin lost hers. He was terrible. Just pathetic.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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I suppose we should be thankful he didn’t call Obama “boy.”
Talk about low standards . . .
going into to Afghanistan may be moot.
guess who came to have dinner in Saudi Arabia at the Palace.. the Taleban
It’s very interesting, when obama speaks about this war thing, both male and female lines go up on cnn, when McCain speaks, they flatline or go down.
McCain is not doing himself any good at least wit those folks in Ohio…women are going highest for o and men for mc
when does this end
7:30 I think
It’s just ending as I type this
My suspicion is that the reason people are undecided is they haven’t seen Obama enough. When they see him, they like him.
I like him fine. I just don’t like his ideas on foreign and military policy.
I dislike both of their positions on NATO and Russia.
Ditto.
The whole Georgia thing was staged by BushCo.
They’re both wrong on the Middle East (and by Middle East I don’t ONLY mean Palestine/Israel), always have been, and always will be.
Yeah, that and the whole “let’s see who can wipe their butts faster with Iran” is pretty fucking stupid.
that Obama can change those opinions, particularly with a diverse cabinet.
shudder
I try to figure out who would support McCain after this.
those who like Palin’s hairstyle and glasses.
What the hell? Russia sells all of its oil to Europe, not us.
At least McCain got that right. But of course neither wants to admit that because of that it is EUROPE who will take the lead on dealing with Russia. Not us.
That was a creepy shoulder pat
I missed it. Who did he pat?
the navy guy who just asked the question about israel
This question is not about nukes, why are they both making it about nukes?
i think mccain just winked at me
did you see that?
im tingling
were there starbursts?
i love starbursts…esp the cherry ones
I think actually it was a tia…
It just dawned on my that McCain’s biggest problem with his holocaust answer is that much of the Republican bases doesn’t think the holocaust happened.
yeah and they love israel but hate jews
esp the ones running the banks
Obama is parroting the standard crap about Iran, including – shades of Bush! – unilateral action.
Oh, goody goody.
Oh – and he wants to have “direct talks” in which he threatens people.
Lovely.
navy guy is nodding at obama…that’s a good sign
don’t like Obama’s response on Iran.. gasoline sanctions WTF?
Obama’s ideas on Iran are all the standard, misinformed bull crap. They are not based on fact or reality, and they are entirely too bellicose.
He is singing bombombbomb bombomb Iran, too, just with a nicer-sounding tune.
And take out Afghanistan while you’re over there. Hopefully this is more campaign talk than policy. We shall see.
Yes, his plan for Afghanistan is based on misinformed bullshit too. Where the hell is he getting his information – oh wait! Yeah, his foreign policy team sucks and always has.
Well, really, at least if he wins this country will have a President who is not such a public embarrassment. I mean, at least he sounds intelligent when he talks, and he has a great demeanor, and seems to have an excellent temperament. And as a bonus, as far as I can tell he doesn’t have any history of womanizing. Those things alone would be an improvement.
McCains answers are always about HIM.
Interesting – when McCain started talking about his military service – the men, which had been rating him highly, turned down the dial.
Yeah – I noticed that. Interesting.
worst format for a debate ever
It’s done.
That was terrible.
Katie Couric’s synopsis mentions the “that one” comment.
Bob Schaeffer says Obama won the “stare down” contest because he never took his eyes off of McCain. He says no knock outs – close to a draw.
I figure that means Obama won – because McCain needed a game changer.
How is this “close to a draw”? It was pitiful– a wipeout– a mismatch. I felt bad for McCain– a doddering old fool who needs to keep asserting his credentials as a “cool hand on the tiller” because his time has so obviously passed him by. How could anyone score this anything less than 70/30? Seriously.
He’s a pundit. What does he know 🙂
Wait for the insta polls to come out.
“That One” = “that boy” — disrespectful.
is, especially when he drops into that loud sotto-voce near-whisper, just how much he sounds like Bush.
Scary, actually.
Did McCain flip off Obama, refusing to shake his hand?
Couldn’t tell by listening. 🙂
No, seriously, I was home by the end of the debate, but I was on the phone at the end of the debate and missed that. But an awful lot of people at least thought McCain blew Obama off.
CBS says the sound bite of the night is …. “that one”.
Katie is talking to the focus group about “that one”.
Did McCain, in effect, refuse to shake Obama’s hand?!
I just posted the same question. Looked so to me.
Yeah – when Obama extended his hand, he motioned him toward Cindy it looked like.
That was what I saw too – he just pointed to his wife, and Obama shook her hand, then McCain was off with the crowd.
Anyone have tivo? I am really curious about this.
I watched some of the debate from a tread mill, without sound. McCain looked ill and lumbering.
clear victory for Obama on style, authority, confidence and substance.
difference was stark.
Yup. Even the self-admittedly biased Republicans on CNN’s ‘partisan’ committee agreed that Obama won tonight.
No doubt. He looked old, stiff, bitter, and cranky. There is no way in the world that anyone could look at him as a vigorous persona to lead us forward into the future. I mean, please, please, PLEASE!!!
Of course Obama looks and sounds better, especially on domestic issues. McCain was lying his ass off as usual. But my overall impression is that the whole thing sucked. I found it boring, I couldn’t wait for it to be over. McCain can only speak in platitudes, and Obama seems to be constrained to speak in platitudes, on issues of world-shattering importance. I didn’t learn much of anything.
Obama won, but barely.
McSame looked like a terrible old man. But Obama’s answers were terrible…he’s Bush on Iran, says we can’t afford Iraq’s billions but we have to give more foreign aid to former Soviet countries, and health care as a right is going to haunt him.
McSame was horrendously bad. But Obama was just…bad.
Neither one did anything at all, the entire thing was a wash, my score was Obama 5, McSame 4, 3 ties.
Obama brought up 9/11, not McSame. Ugh.
Please.
I think once again Obama won by default. McCain had to look presidential and much, much, much better at it than Obama in order to win. He didn’t do it. He didn’t change anybody’s mind, and he needs to fast if he wants to win.
Which, of course, isn’t going to happen.
You have just sacrificed all of your credibility.
Maybe I’m being too hard on Obama, but I expected better answers from the man. I was disappointed and I thought he did much better in the first debate.
And once again I had Obama win. McSame did sound like a politician, Obama sounded like a person. But Obama’s policies on Iran and Pakistan and Afghanistan are just as driven by Israel first. That has always bothered me.
It doesn’t matter anyway, McSame needed a knockout and didn’t get it, Obama could have put him away but didn’t.
Also, Brokaw was an ass.
I don’t know why you’re getting so much shit for your opinion, I thought pretty much the same thing as you did. Obama won, but he stumbled an awful lot on answers he’s been giving for 20 months now. He did have some very good moments too. But still, I expected better from him. But McCain…just wow. He was terrible.
Obama’s positions on Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Palestine/Israel suck – simply. They suck.
I think you need to sleep on it tonight, Zandar. Possibly a different perspective in the light of a new day.
Most likely you’re right.
Nikkei’s down 460, btw. Working IT for a “midsized regional bank” these days has me reassessing my life decisions to the point where even I’m looking for disaster where for once there not one there.
Thanks a lot for the Nikkei heads-up. Now I get to toss and turn some more tonight. Feel your pain on the work situation. I work for a privately held company. Every day brings a new level of nervousness.
BTW, got my quarterly statement from the financial planner today. Lost 11% just in the third quarter. Down 35% YTD. My wife is freaking out. And I’m afraid the worst is surely yet to come.
Who won?
Obama 39
McCain 27
Tie – 35
Uncommitted – did you change?
70% Still Uncommitted
14 McCain
15 Obama
Economy
Who can make the right decisions predebate versus post debate
McCain – 41 before but now 49
Obama – 54 abefore but no 68
Understands your needs
McCain
35 before but now 46
Obama
60 before but now 80
Prepared for the job
McCain
80 before but now 84
Obama
42 before but now 57 (Im not sure i got that one)
Hmm, once again more people thought it was a tie than thought Johnny Mac won.
Interesting.
An hour and a half of my life that I will never get back! I hope we are never again subjected to such a pathetic format. There was not one whit of it that served a useful purpose.
While I am prejudiced, of course, I can’t see any way that a person with even half an analytical brain could convince themselves that McCain did anything to further himself tonight. He was jittery, his words often seemed to get ahead of his brain and there were significant portions of some of his presentation that just didn’t seem to have any interconnecting thread of cohesive thought running through them. It was almost like Sarah Palin was sometimes channeling through McCain’s brain! I looked at my wife several times and asked her, “Did that make any sense to you at all?”
To me it was Obama by a TKO.
yeah!