BallotVox

Second Presidential Debate

Setting up before the debate [Paul Chenoweth / Flickr]

If you were doing something else on Tuesday evening, it’s not too late to catch up on the debate. From those who were glued to it, here’s some commentary.

Fast Kenny at Bark Back News was, big-picture, more impressed with Obama’s delivery and vision than with McCain’s:

I thought McCain sounded disjointed and incoherent many times and ineffective at making his case. Both dealt mainly in generalities, but Obama sounded more coherent and more convincing in that he has a general plan and set of guiding principles and priorities that will help the country.

Nezalhualixtlan, a software engineer in Boston and “always a skeptic with an open mind,” interpreted the body language in Obama’s favor:

From the outset, McCain looked on edge and kind of stodgy. His responses, in word, tone & inflection, and body language, betrayed a man that is feeling the pressure of his sinking poll numbers. […]

Obama on the other hand, looked relaxed and at ease. It’s of course easier to appear that way when your poll numbers are surging and you’re feeling like you already have the confidence of the people behind you - but his body language showed someone who felt very much in control of the situation - and that’s going to be reassuring to voters, especially those concerned with his readiness for the job.

Bernie Hayden, a Marylander from birth, read the candidates the opposite way and gave McCain the edge:

We saw a mostly confident McCain, antagonistic toward Obama, but friendly toward the audience. McCain displayed his experience, knowledge and patriotism, especially in the second half of the debate. […] I imagine the voters approved of his optimism and confidence in America.

Barack Obama did not hurt his campaign in any significant way. I thought he spoke effectively many times, but he seemed chagrined and thrown off balance by McCain’s attacks. Obama seemed to be more often on the defensive.

In terms of what McCain and Obama actually said, Bernie felt that on the economy “[b]oth candidates were underwhelming.”

Some other critiques of the content of the debate: Craniumly Crafty from Harper Woods, Michigan thought McCain pulled a lot of punches even though he won the debate overall. One instance Craniumly singled out: the cost of Obama’s spending plans and tax cuts.

Incredibly, McCain even let Obama get away with lamenting the high deficit. He needed to say, “Let me get this straight. You want to raise spending and give everyone a tax cut, but you won’t increase the deficit? Where does the money come from?” He needed to explain that Obama would hike taxes on practically everyone, that the Democrat’s spending plans require a huge tax increase or a major rise in the deficit.

Watching McCain fail to pin Obama down was like watching Sonny Liston try to catch Mohammed Ali.

The most blogged phrase had to be McCain’s “that one.” Lots of people heard a racial undertone. Twenty-two-year-old Kane, a student living in Newton, Massachusetts, and New York City, took issue with it as one of several instances of disrespect during the debate:

[A] logistical thing about last night that annoyed me was both candidates’ lack of heeding to the allotted time for their responses. […] I noticed it in the beginning with McCain, but Obama made up for it later in the debate by running well over time on numerous occasions. […]

The main issue I had with McCain at the debate was his highly disrespectful attitude. Clearly the one sticking point that many have pointed out was when McCain referred to Obama as “that one” while turning has back to him and pointing. While you can easily make the argument that this is a xenophobic, if not somewhat racist, remark, the overall fact is that it is disrespectful. […] In addition to this, I noticed that McCain walked around a lot while Obama was talking, whereas Obama sat and intently listened to McCain’s answers. I don’t know if this is because McCain had ants in his pants or was trying to distract people from Obama’s answers, but I found it rude.

Now onto a few things that the candidates didn’t talk about. Ramit Sethi, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, blogs at the modestly titled I Will Teach You to be Rich. He didn’t hear either candidate tell the truth about the economy, so he translated the campaign speak:

All the predictions about the recovery taking until “at least the end of the year” are horseshit. In truth, nobody knows, but it would be political suicide to admit that a recovery — whatever that means — will take a few more years. The truth is, nobody knows how long it will take. But if there’s one thing Americans love, it’s a leader pretending to know everything. And if there’s another, it’s that Americans love a quick fix…only to later complain about it not being done right.

The real future, Ramit says, which neither Obama nor McCain is willing to admit, involves frugal belt tightening on the part of the American taxpayer.

Merge Divide from Pennsylvania felt “[t]here weren’t a whole lot of new ideas introduced in the debate.” What he did find remarkable was McCain’s failure to mention his running mate. (Note: Obama never mentioned Biden, either.)

While we heard a lot of the same lines we’ve been hearing for weeks, it’s notable that there were a few things that went completely unmentioned. John McCain didn’t mention the name “Sarah Palin” a single time during the debate. Perhaps that is because he feels a need to distance himself from his attack surrogate, who has been extremely irresponsible on the stump since her handlers decided it was time to “take the gloves off”. Palin has been appealing to the lowest common denominator of the Republican base- the embedded racism and the abject fear of people that differ from them. In doing so, she is treading on very dangerous ground.

University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole remarked that McCain didn’t raise the Bill Ayers issue directly, either. He felt it was a sign that McCain knew it wouldn’t hold up:

What sort of allegation won’t hold up in a debate? A flimsy one. One with the form of propaganda.

McCain’s nasty personal attacks on Obama were apparently felt by his campaign to be inappropriate to a live appearance. They feared such smears would look mean in the mouth of a presidential aspirant.

But then why does it not look mean for McCain to “approve” the scurrilous smears?

Does he think we cannot see him?

A bit of a mystery, the “strategery” behind negative campaigning.