Lean Left

Presidential Debate #2: Initial Thoughts

by tgirsch

October 7th, 2008

I’m a little behind, but just finished watching tonight’s debate on TiVo. I think you’ve got to score this one as a win for Senator Obama. Not a blowout by any stretch of the imagination, but still a win. His demeanor was calm, and while not particularly charismatic, he didn’t come across as unlikable or too professorial, I don’t think. Senator McCain, on the other hand, seemed antsy, and at times a little crabby. And on TV, he just looked old — that shouldn’t be an issue (at least, it wouldn’t be as big an issue if not for his VP pick), but it is one. Further, I did catch a little of the debate on the radio while I was out running an errand, and McCain managed to come across worse on radio than on TV.

On substance, this is going to sound contradictory, but bear with me. Obama was more substantive, but didn’t always answer the question that was being asked of him. McCain was more likely to answer the question, but he almost always did so in vague terms. (Saying “I know how to do this” may be reassuring to people who already support you, but shoring up your base isn’t going to help you very much at this juncture.) Contrast this against the VP debate, where Biden was generally both substantive and on point, whereas Palin was generally off-topic and vague.

Finally, I think McCain overused the “my friends” bit, and I think it wore a little thin. I wonder if I’m alone in this regard.

McCain needed a game-changer here, and he didn’t get it. Because of that, a tie here equals a win for Obama. But as I said above, I think Obama won outright, even if not overwhelmingly. That can’t be good news for the McCain camp.

But none of that, I think is the big story. The big story is the town hall format. It’s one of those things that looks like a good idea on paper, but never really works. One of the biggest problems was that there simply wasn’t enough time for the candidates to really address the questions in any kind of detail — they had to get in a few talking points, and then they were already over their time and had to move on. (I suspect this is a problem with the format — they went for quantity of questions rather than quality of answers.) But I think the biggest problem here was Brokaw. As a moderator, he was terrible. He seemed hostile to both candidates, and was just too in love with the rules. Here’s a hint, Tom: When both candidates are having a substantive discussion about an important issue, and both of them want to continue, FUCK THE RULES — let them continue to discuss. I don’t care what both campaigns pre-agreed to; both candidates — present there, right in front of you — clearly wanted to keep talking about it, and they hadn’t gotten repetitive or overly personal. Health care and mandates, I think, was a premier example of this. Both candidates had interesting things to say, even if you didn’t agree with them, and the discourse was well above the level of basic mudslinging and repeated talking points — and Brokaw cut them off. That’s inexcusable.

OK, enough of my ranting. Give me your thoughts.

Cross-posted at Tennesseefree

Categories: Politics |