Presidential Debate 08 - round one
If you're interested in watching or reviewing the first Presidential Debate, we have the full video up at Hulu.
We also have plenty of clips and post-debate commentary here and here.
The post-debate polling indicates a strong win by Obama, though many pundits preferred McCain. What an odd role reversal. For once, Obama appealed more to the average voter, while McCain appealed to lots of pundits.
McCain threw out terms like earmarks that political novices don't understand, and that hurt him during the economy section. Obama looked at McCain and seemed more congenial (yes, John, we know you are not Miss Congeniality, your running mate is the beauty pageant queen), while McCain would not look at Obama and came off as more elitist and fiery. If we went to Howard Lederman in the corner, I think he'd say McCain threw more punches and seemed more aggressive.
McCain seemed agitated a few times. I wonder if at one of these debates, Obama will be like Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men and decide, screw it, I'm going to press him. The moderator will try to cut off Obama as he shouts at McCain over and over again, "Did you order the code red?!" and finally McCain will finally look at Obama and shout, "You're Goddamned right I did!"
Not the most scintillating debate. I wonder how many viewers made it through to the bitter end. I did policy debate in high school (yes, I was a debate team dork, and yes, I saw that Kirk Cameron movie about policy debate), and that seems a better format for determining a winner than these Presidential Debates. We had to have note cards and cite evidence, whereas our Presidential Candidates can say whatever they want during the debate without any challenge until post-debate analysis.
So here's my proposal: Policy Debate format, two on two, Obama-Biden versus McCain-Palin. They alternate being on the affirmative and advocating a resolution. I would cough up $49.99 to see that on pay-per-view.