My two cents (very quick review here). Who won? I don’t think there was a clear winner. I’d probably have to give McCain the edge. To me, his strength was with Iraq, with dealing with the here and now. While I think Obama is right about the war, McCain comes off stronger by dealing with it the way it is. I think Obama's strength was trying to broaden the vision of what the executive needs to do in terms of global conflicts.
Both were very knowledgeable. Both represented their ideas well. I don’t know how well McCain’s “he doesn’t understand” remarks will go over. I’m not sure if the debate about what to do in Iraq was really settled or at least no clear winner. The same would go for direct diplomacy without preconditions.
I thought it was interesting how both took a very tough stance with Russia.
More in depth comments to come later – thoughts are welcome.
Quick poll of those watching with us:
Ron: I thought Barack held his own very well. I think Barack has a wider vision of how to conduct foreign policy, much more in tune with the 20th century which involves engagement, conversation and seeing the interconnectedness between issues. Whereas John McCain, essentially focused on military. John McCain is a warrior so his international perspective is narrower and much riskier.
Linda: I think that he [Obama] held his own. I appreciated that he would acknowledge when McCain was correct whereas there was a meanness with McCain. So spirit wise, people might be attracted to Obama - people vote with how they feel, not with how they think.
3 comments:
I thought Obama was terrific, thoughtful, calm, specific, courteous. His refrain of "that's not true, John" when McCain tried to spin stuff might stick with people as they think back to all the crap that campaign has been spinning lately.
McCain came off, at our house anyway, as a snide, sarcastic, aggressive, and angry old man. All the experience in the world can't fix a broken world view.
That's our two cents. Check out the News Cut Blog on MPR for other thoughtful MN responses.
Thanks for the comment!
I would definitely agree that McCain's world view seems to be narrow. Whether this was politically calculated or not, I'm not sure. I do think it's in his interests to keep the debate narrow... I guess we'll see.
It will be interesting to see if many felt McCain was snide and arrogant - the "you don't understand comments" were getting to me a bit as well -- especially considering the clear understanding of his running mate :-) I seriously didn't think you could make the "You can see Russia from Alaska" answer worse, but I was proven wrong.
Also, did you notice that twice he made the "I didn't win Miss Congeniality" joke.... um, his running mate did!
I just don't think his "you don't get it" comments can hold water next to Obama's clearly demonstrated and thoughtful responses.
As a former Hilary supporter, I am now a PROUD convert. It would be immeasurably healing to have a president with intelligence, finesse, and negotiation skills.
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