First, who the hell is Joe, and second does Sarah Palin have an autistic child?
I thought this debate was exciting because of the setup. I liked how Obama and McCain sat relatively close to one another, and Bob Schieffer kept the debate lively. Furthermore, because McCain decided to be polite and look at Obama in this debate, the greeting between Obama and McCain was much friendlier.
Some highpoints:
At one point, McCain mentioned Joe the plumber and claimed that Obama’s tax policy will hurt Joe. Obama responded with a quip noting that McCain is relying on “facts” from his own television political ads.
McCain also accused Obama of wanting to spread the wealth around. Basically, McCain came short of accusing Obama of socialism. McCain asked Obama why he would want to increase anyone’s taxes. Obama gave a very strong and altruistic response by saying that he doesn’t mind paying a little more taxes.
Obama wants a rescue package for the middle class and asserted that the fundamentals of the American economy were weak before the financial crisis. Good jab at McCain.
At one point, McCain told Obama that he is not President Bush, and if Obama wanted to run against Bush, he should have done so four years ago. Obama responded by saying that McCain’s policies are eight more years of President George W. Bush.
The moderator asked McCain and Obama about negative factors emanating from the two campaigns. McCain responded by claiming that Senator Obama is running a negative campaign. Obama noted that McCain has been running 100% negative ads, and that the American people are not concerned with hurt feelings. Obama attempted to bring the focus back to failed economic policies.
At one point, McCain wanted Obama to repudiate Congressman John Lewis’s controversial remarks. Obama responded by noting that McCain’s running mate does a poor job at running her rallies, since she allows people to utter and incite hate. Obama handled McCain’s petty request very well.
McCain later brought up Obama’s connections with Bill Ayers and ACRON. Obama responded by noting that Ayers has become the centerpiece of McCain’s campaign, and Obama said that Ayers participated in terrible acts. Obama did a good job at explaining his historical, insignificant contacts with Ayers. Obama noted that Ayers is not involved in his campaign. Furthermore, he explained that ACRON is a community organization where some bad apples erroneously filled out information to collect more money in their paycheck (apparently, the more voters that were registered, the more money these people were paid). McCain responded by pressing the issue further. McCain looked petty and ridiculous when he said that his campaign is about creating jobs and cutting taxes in the same sentence that attacked Obama on ACRON and Ayers.
When Schieffer asked the running mates about their vice presidential picks, Obama was very polite regarding Palin’s qualifications. However, McCain took jabs at Biden.
Schieffer also asked for a specific number regarding how much we can reduce our dependency on foreign oil. McCain said America can reduce its dependency on Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil by building more nuclear power plants. He also claimed we can store and reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
Regarding energy, Obama said that in 10 years we can get ourselves off Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil. He noted that the 68-million acres, which oil companies are not using should be given back. Obama also noted that we have only 3% of the world reserves but use 25%. He noted that we can’t drill our way to energy independence. McCain claimed that we can drill now, but he is wrong and by making this claim he doesn’t understand energy policy. Obama has a more realistic energy policy.
Obama also wanted to enforce environmental and social policy when making trade agreements. I’m glad someone is keen on forcing trade agreements to accept environmental and social policy; otherwise, we all lose.
Obama noted that he was against the Colombian Free Trade Agreement, because of Columbia’s human rights violations. He noted that he supported the Peruvian Free Trade agreement, because it was well structured.
On Roe v. Wade, McCain said it was a bad decision. McCain said he is a federalist, and he denounced having any litmus test for Supreme Court Justices. However, McCain stumped somewhat on the question as he tried to do a balancing act between his base and answering the question.
Obama said that Roe v. Wade was decided correctly. He also said that there are good people on both sides of the debate, but women are in the better position to make the decision regarding abortion. Obama said he will look for Justices with excellent judicial records.
Certainly, Obama won big in this debate. McCain sounded rude when he interrupted Obama, and at times sounded erratic, frustrated, petty, and relied too much on some guy named Joe.
Contrarily, Obama sounded calm, clear, and steady. Basically, McCain lost this debate big time.
My past thoughts on these 2008 debates:
2008 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES: Some thoughts on the presidential town hall debate in Nashville, Tennessee
PALIN VS. BIDEN: Reaction to the vice-presidential debate
2008 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES: Some thoughts
BEST COMMENT OF THE NIGHT
***SENATOR OBAMA IF YOU WANTED TO RUN AGAINST PRESIDENT BUSH YOU COULD HAVE DONE IT 4 YEARS AGO!!!!!
McCain is kicking OBama’s ass!!!!
It is clear if you vote for Obama, you need also need to volunteer to give your job up. Business will need to lay people off to pay taxes
I was so sick of hearing about Joe the plumber!!! That was McCain’s way of running from the real issues. Go Obama!
Obama won all 3 debates and Biden beat Palin.
it’s kindof sad that McCain and Palin have lowered people’s standards so far that, when they finally manage to put whole sentences together during their debates suddenly they either “tie” or “are really making strides in their campaign” Between the two of them, they’ve got the pity vote locked away for sure. As for their actual competancy….
oboma is the coolest an he will win! oboma 08!