For my money, Obama narrowly won this debate, although McCain was a little sharper than I’d expected and certainly scored some points. McCain is the guy who’s had a brutal two weeks, and it only got worse after his stunt where he said he was “suspending” his campaign and suggested the debate should be postponed, and in the polls, and a draw doesn’t do him any good. It is especially damaging to McCain when you consider that the foreign policy largely took center stage last night, and this is an issue that goes to the heart of McCain’s campaign. He’s painted himself as the foreign policy expert and the experienced hand, and he had to clearly demonstrate that he was superior to Obama in this regard. He did no such thing. Obama went toe-to-toe with McCain on all the foreign policy questions, and he hammered McCain on Iraq very effectively. In my mind, McCain scored some points when he lambasted Obama for agreeing to sit down with the Iranian president, but overall, McCain couldn’t separate himself from Obama on the issues of Russia, Georgia, Afghanistan, or Pakistan. McCain’s fumbling of the Pakistani president’s name (he called him Qadari but it’s Zardari) maybe wasn’t the biggest deal, but he claimed that Musharraf took over in 1999 when Pakistan was a “failed state.” That’s simply false. I thought Obama did a great job explaining why the more important fight was in Afghanistan. Overall, Obama showed the voters who are uncomfortable with his grasp of foreign policy that he knows his stuff and would do what it took to protect America. McCain needed a clear win on his central issue of foreign policy, and he didn’t get it.
Obama let the economic debate center too much around earmarks and spending, but he still outclassed McCain on those topics. Most voters rate the economy as their number one issue, and I think Obama was clear about his tax cuts for the middle class and how he planned to make sure everyone had health care, and he slammed McCain for his tax cut plan for the wealthiest and for his giveaways to the oil companies. The economic portion was a clear win for Obama, in my opinion. Both candidates fumbled the ball a bit on the financial crisis, so that was a wash.
So, what did everyone else think? The snap polls of undecided voters following the debate gave Obama a clear win, but it’s usually best to let things settle for a few days and then look at the polls. A lot of people noticed McCain wouldn’t look Obama in the eye and was dismissive of him, and I don’t think that will sit well with people.
The next debate will be on domestic issues, and the final debate will be on the economy, so we’re now moving on to Obama’s turf, which is not good news for McCain.
Pool Photo By Chip Somodevilla
TAGS: brutal, Campaign, debate, economy, georgia, Iran, Iraq, mccain, obama, Poll, polls, russia, Slam
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September 28th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I thought 2004 was a scary election year - looks like 2008 will be scarier. If McCain is elected, American is doomed. We are on our way to hell, in a handbasket.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
At this point, I’ve come around to the “Obama won, narrowly” theory — but it was far too close for comfort. Halfway through the debate, I began to have a strange, awful sense that McCain was somehow, inexplicably trouncing him — not on the actual substance, mind you, but on soundbite form. The worry, of course, is that that is what carries through to much of the electorate. It’s not really a surprise, given McCain’s lengthy history of playing politics in Washington, but it was still unsettling. I’m relieved that Obama eventually evened things up… but I’m disappointed this wasn’t more of a victory for him. The set up was heavily in his favor — almost certainly as heavily in his favor as it’s going to get, given McCain’s awful week — and he should have taken the opportunity to make mincemeat of the old man. Instead, Obama spent much of the time being cornered and being put on defense. He wasn’t able to twist out of the “economy? bah! earmarks!!” bs, or really nail McCain on the obvious distinction between the “invade Iraq = bad idea” and “surge = sorta working” arguments (though he did get close, and might have done well enough).
Whatever the case may be, here’s looking forward (apprehensively) to round two.
All that said, this was a brilliant moment for American politics (ha):
“I think the lessons of Iraq are very clear that you cannot have a failed strategy that will then cause you to nearly lose a conflict.” — J.M.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I was totally going to use that McCain quote. I mean, did we really need the Iraq War to tell us that it’s a good idea to make sure that we don’t have a failed strategy that will then cause us to nearly lose a conflict? Thanks, Captain Obvious. My other favorite is in the post above.