Debate Thoughts

 It has been a couple of days since the debate between McCain and Obama and I haven’t written anything about it. To be honest I just didn’t think that there was anything from the debate that was interesting enough to write about. However I have dedicated so much of my free time to politics and this blog so I actually started to feel guilty that I hadn’t written about it. So I decided to put in my two cents, not that you will read anything here that you haven’t heard elsewhere but here goes.

I had absolutely no expectations for John McCain going in this debate, and I have no expectations for him in the future debates. I didn’t think that he stood a chance in these debates against Barack Obama. Obama is a much better speaker and is half of John McCain’s age. I thought that this would draw a stark contrast between the two candidates. Especially in the image driven society such as America has become. Style and image is all that matters while substance means very little.

 On that front Barack Obama didn’t disappoint, he managed to say nothing but he said it well. On style Barack Obama was the winner hands down. He managed to speak in generalities yet he managed to come across as talking if he was talking about specifics, there is no one smoother when it comes to this technique. The one glaring example of this was when asked where he would cut the budget to make up for the Wall Street bailout. He manages to skirt the issue and couldn’t come up with a single program that he would cut.

 John McCain did a hell of allot better than I thought he would. I expected him to come across as bland in his usual debate style. I find him to be a terrible speech giver and expected him to fail against the younger and more vibrant Obama. I thought that he held his own quite well. I thought that you could tell that he had more experience by his answers, he was able to site his accomplishments where Barack Obama spoke only about what he planned to do.

 While this debate was in a format that favored Obama it was about a topic that favored McCain. I think the debate was a draw and that is not good news for McCain. John McCain is trailing in the polls and could have used a knock out punch in the debate. He didn’t get it. Barack Obama held his own on the issue of national security and now John McCain must counter in the next debate which is going to be about the economy. An issue that polls show favors Obama.