McCain vs. Obama, Chapter 3
Well, debate 3 is here. Thanks to Michael’s post from earlier, I’ll be able to more easily watch the debate and write. So, here goes. Jump…
10:30: And with the closing statements, debate three is over. My analysis in a bit.
10:20: They both have some good answers on education. I think McCain has points on providing vouchers, but Obama is right on that they can’t be used as a band-aid. But Obama is right on unfunded mandates. McCain seems to agree to an extent on NCLB’s problems.
I have a nitpick on headstart. I don’t know if they’ve changed since I went to headstart, but it seems to have worked for me. I went to some form of schooling since I was 3, and needed some extra help, particularly on reading.
If anything, extra reading programs are needed. If anything, that’s something that has changed. My sister also needed extra help, and her school really roadblocked the issue. And yet, she’s not the only one. Even when I went to high school, there were many people who had trouble reading.
10:16: Why does McCain keep hitting on Obama’s nuance as if it’s a bad thing? Obama is trying to answer McCain’s allegations, but he seems to want black or white answers on these things. Sorry, but Obama doesn’t work that way. This manner of answering is nothing new with him.
10:12: The problem with the abortion discussion is that this may have won McCain votes in 2004, but given the economic crisis, has been placed on the backburner in 2008. Good argument on looking to see what a bill contains or doesn’t contain, though.
10:07: By the way, for those who get confused by terms, McCain is referring to the federalist system that dominated federal-state politics before the Civil War. He isn’t referring to the Federalist Party, who were largely for a strong central government.
10:06: I wonder if “Joe” is annoyed yet.
10:05: Aha. “Senator Government.” Nice.
10:00: PREDICTION TRUE!!!!!
9:56: Healthcare. Prediction: Obama says McCain will leave out x million people. McCain says universal healthcare is a big government program.
9:54: Free-trade agreements. I’m not an expert on this kind of thing, but I think we do need to make sure human rights are not being violated in those countries we make the agreements with.
9:48: Ah, energy. Ought to be interesting. I’ve thought McCain’s had good points on the smorgasbord approach. That’s what he gave up tonight. Obama, your volley.
Obama noticeably leaves out nuclear on his response. He’s also a recent adherent to more drilling. I give this one weakly to McCain.
9:46: I didn’t see any zingers on the VP question. That was downright boring after the Ayers/ACORN stuff.
9:41: Though that last 10 minutes or so was contentious, I think we finally got past a roadblock in the campaign season. McCain rightly brought up some tough questions. Yet, Obama didn’t act panicked, but smoothly answered them. Obviously, this has been practiced. They knew it’d come up, and it wasn’t unexpected.
9:36: Wow, it’s getting nasty. I think some conservatives might be cheering right now for McCain.
9:27: And I can’t stand for somebody saying that all supporters from both sides are bad people. Because it’s not true. But people always focus on the nasty ones, which both McCain and Obama are doing tonight with this question.
9:25: The campaign nastiness issue. Here it goes.
And not the “he didn’t do town halls” thing again from McCain. UGH. McCain makes a good point on Lewis. I think McCain partially makes a good point about Obama’s ads, but as he points out, Obama is spending more. That could be part of the reason there are more Obama ads
The truth is that the campaign has gotten nasty from both sides. McCain’s feelings might be hurt, but his side has put out as many nasty jibes.
9:18: More snark from McCain. It’s a good point, though, about talking about Bush. And he pushes Obama on reaching across the aisle. I think Obama was wise to respond how he did.
9:17: Can these candidates do anything else than spew talking points? Also, yet again, they both are basically repeating the same stuff. Maybe it’s because I’ve been following this so closely, but it’s getting old. Some might find it new, though.
9:15: Will Bob Scheiffer might go down as the best debate moderator? That was certainly no softie question.
9:11: “Spread the wealth around.” McCain’s getting a bit snarky, calling out Obama on taxes. This isn’t bad snarky, by the way.
9:05: McCain brings up his mortgage buying proposal while Obama brings up middle class tax cuts. Each attacks the other plans, with Obama saying the bought up mortgages will help banks, and McCain saying businesses will be taxed.
This back and forth could be interesting.
8:58: Hoping this streaming thing works as advertised…
I noticed Obama couldn’t stop nodding for a couple of minutes while McCain was talking about education vouchers- then he finally seemed to catch himself and put the poker face back on. Similar to the first debate when he repeatedly said “I agree with Senator McCain…”
Obama definitely has gotten better at debating. This was McCain’s best performance in the three appearances they’ve had- he had Obama on the defense most of the time and made some good points. However, Obama responded smoothly to all of the blows.
McCain did a bit more to point out Obama’s liberal positions, and he made a clearer differentiation between himself and Obama than he has in the past. He definitely could have driven some of the points home more- should have pointed out that while Obama calls for “investments”, the American people have a choice of whether or not we still trust our government to make such investments. Hopefully tonight opened up that line of discussion to further exposition on the trail.
Another good point McCain made a couple of times is that we need to stop thinking that addressing a problem means throwing more money at it. Again, if he can put some flesh on those bones on the trail- point out situations like education, which has gotten progressively worse the more we put federal money into the system- to show how this is proven to be the case, and that most of the time we need to spend more wisely, not spend more.
Senator Government- a true Laugh Out Loud moment.
Half of the time McCain argued strong points and appeared on top, but half of the time McCain looked silly and desperate–whenever Obama was laughing at him, he deserved to be laughed at. And I don’t know why McCain always lets Obama repeat the 95% figure without ever combatting it, he–again– missed a lot of opportunities to make his case.
Well, I agree redfish that he certainly missed some opportunities, but I would put his batting average a lot higher than you do. Generally he did control the debate and Obama payed defense- the problem is that Obama plays defense really well so it’s questionable how many points McCain was really able to put on the board.
The question is whether it’s too little too late- and will any of the points that McCain did score become openings during the next couple of weeks.