What obama MUST do better (Citizen's Debate Analysis #2,904,731)

[Essene]

The Great News

• Obama seemed to be more focused on the big points making americans anxious, by repeatedly claiming that the GOP (and Mccain) lost focus on our real needs both on domestic and foreign policy. Obama successfully controlled the framing of the issues and threw some truthful punches.
  
  
• He shrugged off and mostly ignored Mccain's ploys and punches. This was fairly shocking. I'm sure i'm not alone in saying i was gasping when Obama repeatedly just ignored Mccain's smears and strawman attacks. The strategy seems to have worked. Independents and undecided voters (for the moment) seem unwilling to be moved by the smears and flag waving ploys.
  
  
• Obama subtly undermined Mccain where he likes to differentiate himself from Bush: the surge, earmarks, afghanistan, etc. Obama didn't take the bait on those talking points & instead focused widely on how the Republicans (and Mccain) have dropped the ball.
  
  
• Obama did NOT try to out-personalize and out-emotionalize the issues. "I have a bracelet too" responses are the proper approach, going back to the big issues that folks are anxious about. He cannot try to "out-Clinton" Mccain, whose forte is emotionalized story telling and ploys.
  
  
• Obama showed gravitas. He relied on the "soft sell" rather than screaming "change" 100 times. He showed integrity and a commitment to speak truthfully on what americans care about.
  

Areas of Improvement and Concern

• He needs to throw harder punches and more memorable lines on Mccain's biggest weaknesses and hypocrisy
  
  
• He needs to have a better response on the spending issue. He's won the tax cuts issue and needs to do the same on spending now (without getting too specific)
  
  
• He needs to better undermine Mccain when he is lying. Without getting defensive, he needs solid lines which permanently register Mccain as a complete lying, nasty "old school" politician.
  
  
• Directly challenge Mccain with yes/no questions on stuff like going into pakistan with actionable intelligence about osama bin laden. Forcing Mccain to quickly yes/no on that is a game changer, especially if he follows up with something like: do you deny that we've dropped the ball in tora bora and in focusing like a laser on al qaeda?. Make Mccian pay for Bush's follies and his own BS.
  
  
• He didn't repeat & combine his punches on stuff like "bomb bomb bomb iran" and such. These are powerful lines, but they need to be 1-2 punches instead of being easily forgettable jabs. Let Mccain stumble for a moment, and then come back and emphasize the point. Just jabbing and running is great meat for the crowd but it's easily forgotten. Put Mccain on the ropes and keep him there for a moment, without looking like a jerk. Mccain went on a long defensive monologue to counter Obama's right hook on that stuff, and Obama just needed 1 more line to put it to rest. Mccain was just lecturing Obama on "dangerous talk" and Obama should have knocked him OUT, permanently, on that.
  

[Essene]

1. Also, Obama didnt use his most powerful rhetorical punch: "This is about the people, not us"

He shouldnt over use it, but he oughta really tap into this when Mccain's trying to posture.

Obama's sincerity on the point has always been 100%.