- Obama started out weak and unclear. He had to warm up to his talking points. McCain was on point from the get go.
- Point/counterpoint with the Fannie Mae/Obama connection and the deregulation/Bush/McCain connection
- McCain is going to actually buy the loans? Not just the securities? Wow, I never thought I'd hear a Republican talk about nationalizing home ownership. Socialism with a capital S (and probably a good political move - he needs something radical at this point).
- Obama is for a net spending cut (balanced budget or just smaller deficits? Tax Policy Center shows that Obama balances the budget.)
- Health care, entitlements, energy - McCain is going to do all three at once? Really? You're going to take on the third rail of politics at the same time as solving the energy and health care crisis? Now that's ambitious.
- Of course Obama puts entitlements last. He is a Democrat. Also politically smart to prioritize in this way.
- McCain links Obama to Hoover. Now that's a neat trick.
- Brokaw is an excellent moderator. The best of the three so far and heads and shoulders above Iffel.
- Starting to get nasty with the responses to each other. Brokaw is clearly frustrated, but still some semblance of control.
- Obama just talked about his mother's death and health care. Health care is a right. IT IS!!
- Foreign policy - what, no "naivete" tonight Senator McCain?
- Obama - McCain - "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" Low blow and effective.
- And the rest...
Again, no gaffes. More nastiness, but that only solidifies positions, (see Sean Hannity's ravings preaching to the right wing choir). I think the 2% of undecideds are waiting for something spectacular and if that something spectacular does not happen, they'll go with what they perceive as either intellect and judgment or experience and judgment.
This election is Obama's to lose and he's doing a very good job at not losing it so far. FactCheck.org is up.
3 comments:
I actually think I liked McCain]s performance better tonight on most issues (healthcare excluded). I'm surprissed to see the talking heads saying that Obama was more effective, but whatever.
Either way, I certainly agree that this is Obama's to loose. He will be very cautious over the next month. McCain will keep pushing, but will probably not look good in the process.
Get ready for more and more voter registration scandals to start flying.
I thought that McCain started very strong but I also think Obama did a good job to deflect. For instance, McCain put the shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger saying that Obama and his cronnies are responsible for this economy right now because they were against proper regulation and that Obama is the 2nd highest recipient of loans from Countrywide. Obama responded by talking about needing to unfreeze the credit markets. Nice deflection.
I also thought that McCain had a better closing (the Zen question), perhaps it was because he went last, or maybe it was because Obama said there are a lot of things he doesn't/hasn't known and he learns them from his wife. I don't know much about her, but all of the impressions I've received so far are full of anti-American sentiment. I liked the tribute to his wife, but think there are a lot of other things he could've said that would've been a lot more effective.
Obama's closing was very wishy washy. The joke about his wife started well, but he then lapsed into well worn talking points. It's almost like the question threw him for a loop.
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