This must be the first time McCain has actually looked at Obama
Honestly, nothing surprising or shocking caught me this time. This debate did have a little more energy and back-and-forth then the first, but I was expecting more. Considering that there are only 4 weeks left until the polls open, the “ratcheted up” tension between them was expected.
These were my reactions, red negative and green positive:
- McCain as the calm one. He needed to do that.
- Obama on the attack. He really needed to do that.
- Brokaw getting frustrated.
- Obama pointing out that more drilling was not an answer.
- McCain stating that he would build hundreds of new nuclear power plants as part of the energy solution. “I worked on a nuclear aircraft carrier. It’s safe.”
- Obama stating that more nuclear energy is not the answer.
- Obama referring to health care as a right and pointing out specifically the holes in McCain’s plane of “open borders”.
- In many cases, neither candidate really answering the question asked. (This really pissed off Brokaw.)
- Nothing happened (in my opinion) that would sway the undecided one way or another.
- Lack of authenticity and variety in the questioning.
My guess is that Obama will “win” this one, too. McCain really needed to pull a good performance off and he didn’t. His next, and last, chance to do that is next Wednesday.
That’s it. 28 days and counting.
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Brian Q. Webb is a multi-medium photography enthusiast from Los Angeles, California but spending most of his time in Taipei, Taiwan. He is especially interested in street photography as well as large format and pinhole photography.
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I actually disagree. I thought the debate was very helpful to undecided voters (i.e. me). I may have been in an overly-liberal watching party here at the University, but even if I wasn’t I think Obama did better. He got his points across, and had plans and data to back it up. McCain, although I agreed with a lot of his points, didn’t have a plan. He said we need to get out of Iraq, he said we needed to get out of this economic crisis, but he never gave a plan, or never really got into details. Somehow, the Drudge Report poll says McCain winning…idk how.
And actually you were wrong about one point: I do remeber hearing Obama say that he was not opposed to Nuclear power. He probably wasn’t as for it as McCain was, who was basing his entire energy “plan” off of it, but he was still for it.
The one thing that really ticked me off about the debate was the spending plans. McCain, the supposed maverick of stopping spending, proposed a freeze in spending. See, spending is bad in some instances, but like Obama said, you need to use a scalple, and not an ax. Some spending bills are very important not only to the function of the country, but to developing the country and making things such as social security, healthcare, and dare I say, mortgages better. Obama proposed a fine inspection of the spending, looking at where every cent is going, and weeding out all of the useless christmas tree ornaments and the useless bills, or bills helping people not needing help.
My favorite point: Obama’s breakdown of McCain’s tax cuts, and how McCain will supposedly have $300 billion tax cuts (How can we afford that?), but it will really only apply to large companies and fortune 500 CEOs. Obama’s cuts apply to the working middle class, and 95% of americans, and most small businesses. His plan appeals not only to Democrats, but I’m sure to many republicans too. Something that I believe will decide who wins.
Ok, that was my shpeal.
Night~
I do think Obama did better and (as I stated in my list above) he did do what he needed to do: be more aggressive and make specific points. I just didn’t see anything surprisingly new from either of them. And you’re right, he didn’t just get specific about insurance (as I pointed out) but he also got more specific with taxes.
Obama is not singularly against nuclear, but he puts it in the same boat as oil. A couple of times bills have come up in the senate to expand the number of nuclear plants and he’s voted against them…and that’s one thing that I like about him: he is pushing to develop newer technologies and not rely on the old to get by.
That’s tied to America returning to global leadership AND further development of our economy.
Industrial Revolution->Information Revolution->Clean Energy Revolution.
And yes, you’re right when you say that McCain’s “economic solution” is too blunt: fire the SEC chief, put a freeze on spending, and give everyone a tax break…especially that top 1% who really need it.
What’s interesting to me is that top 1% that Obama would tax and McCain would give the lion’s share of tax breaks to actually support Obama. That’s a VERY good indicator of who they think will improve the economy that they depend on.
i haven’t watched it yet… plan to catch it later on hulu. no cable or antenna for me, so the internet is my main provider of television.
man, i really hope obama can pull this off.
It looks like he will so long as the youth vote actually votes (which it look like it will), Florida and Minnesota go blue so states like Ohio won’t matter (and it looks like they will), and there’s no “October Surprise” in store.
On the subject of Florida, have you seen the Sarah Silverman’s “the Great Schlep”? It’s meant to get young Jews to visit their retired Floridian parents and convince them to vote for Barack. (http://www.thegreatschlep.com)