He doesn't understand ... he doesn't understand ... he doesn't understand ...

[BLUSH]

he doesn't understand ... he doesn't understand ... etc.

Obama needs to turn on that phrase and knock McCain on his #ss.

He can't let that motif continue unchallenged.

This is the time for a there you go again type of response to take out that refrain and put McCain on the defense.

I'm waiting.

Anyone else bothered by that phrase and Obama not knocking it back in McCain's face?

[Jackpine Radical]

1. It makes McCain look petty.

Obama does himself a great service by handling it as he does.

[grannylib]

2. Yeah, there's gotta be a good 'fuck you' response to that shit

A classy 'fuck you,' mind, but a VERY pointed one.

[BLUSH]

6. I keep waiting for Obama to say

something like, "John, you keep saying I don't understand. What you don't understand ... " and then BAM!

I keep waiting for him to turn on that phrase.

I don't understand why he's letting him continue to do it. It needs a sharp response.

(edit: that was unintended my saying I don't understand in the last line ... subliminal? ... but it's driving me nuts!)

[EmeraldCityGrl]

3. McCain has him on the ropes...Barack needs to stop being a gentleman

he's dealing with a snake.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

4. McCain has him on the ropes...Barack needs to stop being a gentleman

he's dealing with a snake.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

5. McCain has him on the ropes...Barack needs to stop being a gentleman

he's dealing with a snake.

[BLUSH]

7. McCain just said it again

and he added, "he doesn't get it."

ugh!

[BLUSH]

8. I guarantee Chris Matthews will jump on that line

and say, "Why did Obama let that refrain go unchallenged?"

McCain is creating a theme, that Obama is naive.

Obama can't let that theme be established unchallenged!

[JDPriestly]

16. Obama did not need to answer directly. Obama's performance,

his clear mastery of foreign policy issues negated McCain's foolish accusation. By not responding directly, Obama disarmed the accusation.

Obama's responses to the foreign policy questions made McCain look like a fool, lost in his own preconceptions about Obama and unable to see who and what Obama the audience could see that Obama really is, this knowledgeable, competent leader.

McCain wasn't speaking about the Obama that the viewers were seeing, so McCain's dismissals of Obama did not make an impression on viewers. McCain did not seem to be talking about the Obama we were watching at all. That hurts McCain's credibility and doesn't touch Obama,

Obama won. Obama was able to demonstrate to those who may not have previously paid attention to him that Obama is presidential and can lead our country on national security.

Obama won this debate because he improved his image.

McCain did OK, but this was the issue on which McCain was expected to excel, to win, to outshine Obama. He didn't. Therefore McCain lost.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

9. Obama must ask: if your judgment was so great, why did you support the war in the first place?

All that experience ... all that knowledge.... and you still had such terrible judgment?

[BLUSH]

10. Norah O'Donnell just said it

the key phrase, "he doesn't understand"

She said that's going to be the theme -- and reverberating soundbite -- in the GOP's next TV ad.

[vanlassie]

11. Very Condesending. Very Nasty.

[riverdeep]

12. It needed addressing.

You can't think like you're a supporter. We're already going to vote for him. You have to think like fencesitters. They hear that stuff, and unchallenged, start to believe it. Obama has way too much faith in the American public into thinking they catch onto subtlety. They don't.

[mnhtnbb]

13. Obama needs to knock McCain out, not spar with him.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

14. Obama's got to hammer home: have repub economics worked for ya? Has the Iraq war worked for ya?

Forget the specifics.

Hammer home how little McCain's experience has helped.
Hammer home how republican economics have bankrupted Main Street.

[BLUSH]

15. Obama needs a comeback

Something like "John, you keep saying I don't understand. What YOU don't understand is ..."

And then wack him.

[BLUSH]

17. John McCain Doesn't Understand Health Care

John McCain Doesn't Understand Health Care

Fri Sep 26, 2008 at 09:47:39 PM PDT

That much was clear in the debate.

At one point, health care was broached. Barack Obama said rising premiums and deductibles are killing American families financially (and they are). He was right to point this out. John McCain responded with the stale Republican talking point that Obama's plan would force everyone into government insurance, and "allow bureaucrats to make medical decisions." John McCain is wrong on two fronts.

First, Barack Obama's health care plan merely allows any American--regardless of pre-existing condition--to buy into the health insurance members of Congress give themselves. If you like your current insurer, you can keep it under Barack Obama's health care plan. That McCain would use 15 year old scare tactics on Obama's plan isn't surprising.

But McCain is also wrong about another thing. McCain has apparently never dealt with an HMO. If he had, he would know that bureaucrats make decisions about our health care every day. Bureaucrats say no to life-saving surgeries, and tell us we can't have the medication we need because it's too expensive. Doctors spend hours on the phone with insurance company bureaucrats, who are not renowned specialists, arguing over what is really necessary treatment. The bottom line, and the insurance company's profits, frequently get in the way of good treatment.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/27/04327/8509

[BLUSH]

18. John McCain Doesn't Understand Education

John McCain Doesn't Understand Education

September 9, 2008 at 08:01 AM

Obama is accusing Republican rival John McCain of failing to do anything to improve the quality of public education during nearly three decades in Washington. "Not one real proposal or law or initiative. Nothing," Obama said.

A new Obama television ad contends that the Arizona Republican voted to cut education funding and voted against accountability standards. "John McCain doesn't understand," according to the ad.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/obama-john-mccain-doesnt_n_125031.html

[BLUSH]

19. John McCain Doesn't Understand The Economy

John McCain Doesn't Understand The Economy

September 23rd, 2008 at 5:48 PM

1. Says he’s glad he deregulated Wall Street, then flip-flops

If McCain had listened to this morning’s Senate Banking Committee hearing, he would have realized that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and SEC Chairman Chris Cox all seem to agree on one thing: if there is one thing Wall Street needs, it’s increased regulation. McCain’s work in the late 90s helped to remove the safeguards that likely would have prevented the banking collapse that is now being realized.

But today, McCain blames the regulators for being “asleep at the switch,” calling for increased market regulation and vowing to “hold people on Wall Street responsible.” His previous opposition to that very thing notwithstanding (back in March, he told reporters, “I’m always for less regulation.”), McCain placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of an inadequate regulation system: “ haven’t been doing their jobs,” he said, “otherwise we wouldn’t have these massive problems on Wall Street.” But then again, he thinks his own efforts to deregulate what he now says needs more regulation was “helpful.”


3. Fundamentals of our economy are strong

Let’s just take his quote for what it is. “The fundamentals of our economy are strong,” he told a crowd of supporters and press on the same day financial giant Lehman Brothers collapsed. That was just eight days after the federal takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Of course, McCain scrambled to cover himself, claiming that what he really meant by “fundamentals” was “American workforce.” Malarkey.

http://www.eyesonobama.com/blog/content/id_31494/title_5-Signs-John-McCain-Doesnt-Get-the-Economy/

[lunatica]

20. Don't ever interrupt your enemy when they are showing how wrong they are

If McCain had that only once or twice no one would have noticed it. But the fact he kept repeating it only brought attention to his old age. Obama did well to just let McCain keep digging that hole for himself.

Think about it. What are you talking about today? McCain's idiotic comments.

[BLUSH]

21. I still think Obama could have come back with a good retort

They say if you repeat something enough times, people will come to believe it even if it's untrue.

I hope Obama is ready for that "he doesn't understand" refrain in the next debate.

Remember how many times Bush used "flip-flopper" against Kerry? And people came to believe it.

You can't let that stuff go.

[mbee]

22. Obama needs to say - Yea, I don't understand how people

could vote to have a bunch of idiots like you run our country in a hole for 8 years and then have the gall to request we bale it out for them! That's what the h.ll I don't understand!

[tjwash]

23. McSames body language and obvious contempt for Obama were showing big time.

It was the worst part of his performance. The pundits weren't talking about it afterward, but I guarantee you that the people watching noticed. Obama seemed much more relaxed and likable than McCain by a long stretch, and in what passes for the train wreck that is American politics, that's huge.

Don't get too much into the "Obama needs to attack...attack...ATTACK!!" mode. Obama did the right thing to keep his cool. The corpora-media has been chomping at the bit for Obama to slip up and lose his cool even a little, so they can label him the "angry black man" who tried to hurt the fearless war hero. McCain tried to attack Obama the same way he belittled Mitt Romney back in the primaries. The only thing it accomplished for McCain was to show that he is one gigantic asshole.

In the end...Obama looked presidential, and McSame managed to finish the damn thing without blowing his lid. It wasn't a game changer, and the way the week has been going for McCain, that's not a good thing for him.

[whosinpower]

24. John McCain had 26 years to understand

And change the system he says he abhores....and yet it is the same old game, the same old way - his way - that is the only thing he is ready for - same old tired worn FAILED ideology.