The Players:
Bob Schieffer, Barack Obama, John McCain.
(In the audience: Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney)
(Your choices are John McCain, Barack Obama, or Tom Brokaw)
Ben Smith reports:
"Lynn Sweet reported yesterday that the two campaigns had reached an agreement under which, among other things, moderator Tom Brokaw wouldn't ask follow-up questions tonight.
But Brokaw wasn't a party to the deal, I'm told, and hasn't agreed to it, so the campaigns are expecting follow-up questions, a senior campaign official said."
34 comments:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/09/ST2008060900950.html
"Hair transplants"? McCain tried to make a joke and nobody laughed :(
I started watching at 8:30, so I haven't caught the whole debate, but, so far, I think McCain has "exceeded expectations." Showing off his "maverick" side, I believe he was more agressive and to-the-point than Obama was. He also seems very comfortable with the town hall style and Tommy asking the non-existant follow-up questions ;)
Obama has done a very good job on bringing up McCain's Congressional voting record in the debate. He has used it to his advanatge at least three times in the past half hour. Although, it doesn't help that McCain has been in Congress forever so he's going to have more "votes" and situations that Obama can twist to his advantage... hmmm
I started watching the dabate after my game at about 845 and from then until now (925) McCain has used the phrase "My friends" and "my hero" more than 10 times. It's getting old and quite annoying. It takes away from his ideas becasue people are more focused on his catch phrases rather than his position on an issue. I think Obama is doing a good job but needs to make his point more clear so McCain cant put words in his mouth. For example McCain said that Obama would declare war on Pakistan if elected president. LOL McCain you maverick. I think both candidates are doing quite well and it's too close for me to give a win to either candidate. Debate records: Obama 2-0-1 and McCain 0-2-1 goodnight
Tom Brokaw has exceeded in reminding the candidates that there are in fact lights that tell them when to stop talking. And that follow-up answers shouldn't be longer than the answers to initial question being asked. =]
As well as McCain getting in the way of his script.***
I started watching @ c8:30 after I got off work and got 3 $1 burgers at Culvers.
I think the debate itself was very boring and rather uneventful. The commentators at the end said that boring debates usually end up favoring the candidate that is winning at that time. (In this case Obama.)
Also, tonight on Jay Leno, Bill Mahar was a guest. He said that Obama will most likely win. This is because "inexperience is like pornography, you know what it is when you see it." (directed at Palin.)
Obama clearly won that debate. He looked the most presidential he ever has. What was his Achilles heel is now irrelevant, because the past two debates have shown that he possesses knowledge like few others. Most of the time he spent talking about McCain (his politician talk) was responding to attacks that McCain was making. He made very few of his own, and appeared much more in control of what he was saying.
John McCain I think failed miserably. He sounded petty more than anything else. He kept on making dumb jokes and little side-comments like child. I think that really undermined him tonight.
Again, I think both candidates gave a lot of "talk", but neither of them really said anything in stark contrast to what they have been in the past. I do think, however, that Obama needs to stop agreeing with McCain all the time. After all, they are in a competition and makin the other guy look better isnt helpin his cause. As for McCain, he needs to focus on some different issues rather than continuing to hammer away at the ones he used last night. In my opinion, the debate was a tie but John McCain did show improvement since the last debate.
-Erik K.
I felt like the debate overall was a mosquito bite in the mist of battling a lion. We were expecting something really big and bad to happen with one of the canidates and neither one I believe showed that they were going to dominate the other one. That being said, neither of them made a mistakes either. Although I am getting sick of them taking each others facts and streching them and all out lying. I wouldn't say that any of the three men exceeded expectations in that debate.
That one, my friends.
Unless you didn't watch the first debate or have not heard the candidates talk anywhere else they didn't really say anything new. So I don't think either candidate exceeded expectations, but I thought for all the talk about how John McCain is so good with the town hall meeting format, I didn't think he did that great.
I think that neither candidate really did too great. Each of them had their own blunders and mistakes. I think however that Obama had a slight edge in the debate because he seemed to actually answer the questions more in depth. He would actually get into details and say how each action he would take would personally affect people. McCain seemed to answer the questions more generically and wasted more of his time trying to bash Obama.
Hmm, I should really start to watch these debates. But from what I did see before turning off the TV in boredom and disgust, everyone failed to impressed in this debate. Obama and McCain both just used every question as an excuse to attack or otherwise demean their opponent. This is obviously an inevitable part of every debate, but in this debate it took precedence over the issues. And, of course, Tom Brokaw failed miserably at enforcing time constraints.
I completely forgot about Tom. how could we ever get by with a man who can't improvise when a the presidential candidates are blocking his view of the telepromptor...
Well from the short time I watched I dont think either exceeded expectations. Nothing new was said, it was kinda boring.
well i think they both did just like they did the 1st time. Obama i think won and McCain did a desent job, not horrible but nothing great. I think to win they both need to do somthing great to pull way ahead...It is going to come to the wire.
Neither Senator Obama nor Senator McCain exceeded expectations in the town-hall style format. Both candidates had their strong points and weak points. I think Senator McCain was strongest at the beginning of the debate. He seemed comfortable with the informal setup and walked close up to the audience when communicating with the people asking questions. Obama seemed uncomfortable at first and didn’t connect well with the audience but by the end of the debate he improved.
I found the debate comical. McCain trying to make a joke about hair transplants, the fact that the candidates just ignored the blinking lights. Hearing about all of McCain's Heroes, and his friends, also watching McCain getting like two feet way from the person who asked the question. So overall the town-hall-style debate gave me laugh
Moderator: "Really generic, overused question."
Barack Obama: "Scripted, overused comment. Voted with George Bush 189% of time. Change, hope, change."
John McCain: "Scripted, overused rebuttle. Inexpirienced. Voted 1,994,565 times against something. Poor, scripted joke. Maverick."
Moderator: "Complaint about time issues. Complaint about not being able to see prompter."
That's a perfect description, Jake.
http://www.myspace.com/mydebates
This debate did not hold a clear victor. This was a waste, but I approve of both of their "plans" for the Middle East. But I did like Tom's lack of memorization of his lines.....shows his preparation
By Taegan Goddard | October 16, 2008 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
It turns out Sen. John McCain may not have properly vetted "Joe the Plumber" -- the man he brought up more than 20 times in last night's presidential debate.
As the New York Times reports, the man in question "may run a plumbing business but he is not a licensed plumber. His full name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher. And he owes a bit in back taxes."
"Joe the Plumber" probably now wishes he never had his 15 minutes of fame.
Update: It turns out Joe may also be related to Charles Keating.
I only got to see the closing statements from the candidates during the last debate. But, as we talked somewhat in class about it, I felt Senator Obama was just grinning his teeth and try to get through it without any mistakes. I felt Senator McCain's statment was more of a last goodbye and plead and it sounded like he did go out on a limb during the debate. But that's just what I felt from the closing statements.
In the last debate i thought McCain was attacking Obama a little to much. He was always laughing at what Obama said... Meanwhile i thought Barack was giving all safe "cannot offend anybody" answers. I guess i can see why cause hes ahead in the poles and doesnt wana screw it up but man i really would like to see direct answers to questions. I sick of the dodging safe answers.
I don't think either candidate won this last debate. The final debate is never going to change a lot of people's votes. By this time when the election is only about three weeks away all either candidate is trying to do is not mess up. So I think this debate was almost pointless.
I watched the first half of the last debate and I tend to agree with the previous comments. It was kind of a waste because they were both playing it safe to not make any mistakes. I was kind of sick hearing about Joe the Plumber as well.
In both of the debates I think both of the candidates need to focus more on the questions. All they were doing was addressing the question in the first line of what they said and then attacking the other person. I'm sick of attacks on the other person's career. As for the last debate specifically I am a little baffled and suprised by Joe the plumber.
Senator Obama seemed to play it safe during the last debate and was forced to go on the defensive while Senator McCain took a very offensive approach. Senator McCain, though a bit rude, was the most direct in his responses and therefore, won the debate in my opinion.
Obama needed not do anything except absorb McCain's attacks and avoid shooting himself in the foot. He succeeded. Break out your shovels; we've got ourselves a landslide.
The link to that myspace account Mr. Bretzmann posted is pretty interesting. It gives you what each candidate stands for on seperate issues but doesn't actually tell you who the candidate is. The only flaw is that it is really obvious who falls under which issue. If a person doesn't know what they are doing on there it tells them to watch the debates. A decently good public service announcement in my opinion.
Vote Joe the plumber 2010!
No really. He could be running for Congress.
Article
I belive this debate was very similar to the first one. both canidates didnt impress me at all. I feel it was a tie, and nither exceeded expectatations in the town-hall-style format.
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