I'm rubber and you're glue... ?

[dreamshark]

That seems to be the consensus on the final presidential debate. Nobody lost (i.e., sounded like an idiot). But Obama won because all he had to do was stay calm and collected enough to reassure people that he could act presidential. Fortunately, he's good at that. McCain... not so much.

I didn't watch the debate in real time, although I have viewed about the first 20 minutes on the Internet. I was actually more interested in how other people reacted, so I've been reading polls and commentary. Interestingly, a lot of people who watched the whole thing felt that John McCain started out "winning" but kinda lost his cool after the first half hour, which resulted in viewers feeling increasingly positive about Obama and negative about McCain as the debate went on.

I'm curious - what do people on my friends list think? If there was a turning point in the debate, where was it?

Comments

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Didn't watch the debate; holding out for future Presidential contests to be held as steel cage matches MC'd by Mean Gene Okerlund. At least the damn things would be more entertaining and hardly less informative.

[lakeboy-55.livejournal.com]

I watched from the beginning. I thought McCain started out OK, but not spectacularly well. Obama, was just staying pat. It was mostly lackluster, with a few interesting moments. Obama could certainly have attcked, or even more strenuously debated some of McCain's tired talking points, but he didn't need to. McCain really started to lose it when he tried to defend his supporters over the death threats toward Obama. Obama could have made a bigger deal out of it but instead simply stated that he was threatened with death. That's a lot different than simply calling some one a bad name. McCain real started to unravel when he tried to tie Obama to Ayers. After about 20 minutes McCain was mostly just babbling. His response to why he thought Sarah Palin would make a good president in the event it became necessary would have been just laughable, if he had actually tried to answer, which he didn't. He also lost me completely when he kept referring to Sarah Palin's personal tragedy with autism.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I think Obama should have said that voter registration fraud can only happen if the secretaries of state accept non-valid registrations.

K.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I wrote a long comment in my own LJ, and will probably repeat some of the points here.

I thought it was the best debate from both of them, and certainly the best moderator. McCain was better in the beginning than the end, when the questions were about the economy. Obama was cool and collected and far more in command of the situation than McCain, and refused to rise to any of his jabs. In many ways, I regretted that: Obama didn't call McCain on Palin's nastiness, merely calling the race "tough" and letting it all slide off his back. This gave him huuuuuuge style points while McCain apparently picked up rhetoric points.

McCain finally said that he wasn't Bush, but it was too little too late, and Obama calmly and effectively dismantled that argument. One of Obama's finest and most presidential sequence was responding to McCain's best zinger (not being Bush) by methodically pointing out that he was indeed very much like Bush on the economy and foreign policy.

The moment where McCain lost me completely was when he went all Politically Correct and started yammering about "pro-abortion" positions. No, John. Obama probably won the presidency with his answer: Noone's "pro-abortion" and this is a divisive issue where we can find middle ground despite differences. McCain came off as shallow and far to the right while Obama took a principled stance that best reflects most American's position.

McCain said he was "proud" of Sarah Palin. Proud of her being "unethical and illegal", apparently. Obama's past associations were brought up and deflected, while Palin's current associations and legal problems were never mentioned. When McCain couldn't get a rise out of Obama, the tide turned and he never recovered.

[pameladean]

Ack, sorry, that comment about the air quotes was me.

P.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I thought McCain started out very strong, impressively so, but began to lose it when he began pulling silly faces. When he began making various assertions about Obama's plans (mostly with regard to taxes) and Obama rebutting him time and again, I think that was the real turning point.

My brother mused a few weeks ago that Obama would be carefully coached to use language that would set off McCain's sore points. I haven't analyzed the transcripts of the three debates, but from the third one (the only one I saw live), he sure did rile his opponent.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Someone made wordle clouds of the text of the three debates. I saw them in one of the newspapers today. Lemme see if I can find them.

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no.

K.