Debate Reviews: "The winner is Barack Obama"

[Hope And Change]

Debate Reviews: "The winner is Barack Obama"

By http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/person/gGNnYR">Amanda Scott - Sep 27th, 2008 at 12:52 am EDT


10:48 PM ABC - George Stephanopoulos: "Barack Obama A minus, John McCain B plus….People wonder whether (Obama) has the experience to be President, to handle national security, and I think on answer after answer after answer, he showed confidence, he showed toughness and he showed he belonged on that stage."

11:51 PM ABC - George Stephanopoulos: And overall, bottom line, the winner is Barack Obama. He comes into this race where the country wants change, his number one goal was to show that he belonged on that stage…he could hold his own on national security, he did that tonight, he gets the win."

9:53 PM CBS – Myers: "Well, I think the one thing people were looking to, to see if Barack Obama could hold his own, could he sound like a commander in chief, did he have command of foreign policy issues, could he stand there toe-to-toe with John McCain and I think he passed that test with flying colors."

10:30 PM CNN - Gloria Borger- “He took it right to mccain on the tax issue and said to people out there, if you earn over 200 -- under $250,000 a year, nothing will happen to your taxes or you'll get a tax cut.”

10:51 PM PBS - Scott Horsley - "I think John McCain's conduct of economic policy over the last two days has to look a little erratic, has to look very seat of the pants, frankly."

10:54 PM ABC - George Will: "I think Barack Obama came out and looked comfortable and as though he belonged there. So, in a sense, the structure of the debate, indeed, the fact of the debate had to give a mild leg up to Barack Obama."

11:07 PM PBS - Mark Halperin - "I thought Obama clearly did better. I thought he had a chance to show that he was calm and prepared and capable of standing toe to toe with the more experienced McCain. I thought McCain spoke too much Washington jargon, told too many jokes in shorthand, made too many comments he knew what he meant but I don't think he conveyed it necessarily to the audience overall. I thought Obama was the better communicator an did what he needed to do to reassure people."

11:08 PM MSNBC - Richard Wolffe “That was the greatest contrast…the demeanor and the tone of voice that these candidates adopted where McCain was being much more pointed much more aggressive and curiously couldn’t look Obama in the eye. Obama’s tone much more straight and even keeled but ready to look his opponent in the eye repeatedly. A big contrast.”

http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_10570284?source=commented-politics">Denver Post: Obama says he would send "two to three brigades" to Afghanistan. McCain implies that Obama is wet behind the ears on military matters. Obama retorts with perhaps his best line of the night because it critiques McCain's temperament. Obama says that McCain has previously referenced extinction for North Korea and sang songs about bombing Iran, "so I don't know how credible that is."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/?hpid=opinionsbox1">Washington Post: (Robinson)-The Debate: The All-Important Grumpiness Factor: Here’s the politically incorrect way of phrasing one of the central questions about tonight’s presidential debate: Did John McCain come across as too much of a grumpy old man. That might not be a nice question, but it’s an important one. Americans like to vote for the nice guy, not the grumbling prophet of doom. Throughout the 90-minute debate, McCain seemed contemptuous of Obama. He wouldn’t look at him. He tried to belittle him whenever possible -- how many times did he work “Senator Obama just doesn’t understand” into his answers? His body language was closed, defensive, tense. McCain certainly succeeded in proving that he can be aggressive, but the aggression came with a smirk and a sneer.


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[LiberadorHugo]

1. If Obama keeps giving money and miitary support to the Northern Islamist Alliance...

I'm afraid he'll lose a lot of good will in areas of the world where there's a vibrant left that is cognizant of the sins of the Mujahideen and willing to offer an honest, sober, historical perspective of Afghanistan. McCain, conversely, has absolutely no good will to lose.