Political Punch

Obama will do fine. He's "likeable
enough"...just like Hillary.

"I hope the debates aren't scheduled past mccain's bedtime..."

I hope they don't interfere with BO's vacation times.....

"obama cant say 57 states

but mccain can refer to a country that hasnt existed for 16 years"

(bhrandon)

Yes!... because the seven extra states... have N E V E R existed!

HILLARY OR MCCAIN
BUT ALWAYS.....

COUNTRY OVER BROKEN DOWN DNC

America will use the "Monroe Doctrine" to keep foreign interests out of North & South America, whether anyone likes it or not, so I guess we are now being introduced to the "Putin Doctrine". Where Russia will not tolerate interferecne in nations with adjoining borders to Russia.

No-one can figure out who the real Obama is! The man must have multiple personalities! Flip-flops, recants statements, needs vacations to keep up with the grey-hair dude! If he is such a great debater, why has he refused to do Town-Hall Meetings with McCain? Answer: No teleprompters allowed! Is this the best Fallows can do - compare him with Alan Keyes?! LOL!

Hillary & Bill know that Obama is NOT a natural born citizen. He shouldn’t even be running. She is positioning herself so that when his citizenship hits the fan, she won’t look so bad in more ways than one.

To all you Obama supporters telling Hillary supporters to get over it:
Why should they? Why should they have to vote for Obama and like it? This is America and last checked we could still vote for whichever candidate we choose. If I were a Hlllary supporter (which I am not) I would be upset at the situation too. Obama bought the primary with super delegates. If you went to the DNC and voted without super delegates, Hillary would be the nominee. What you have here is rich and powerful democrats ignoring the way their constituents voted and throwing support behind Obama in a bid for new government positions. It is sad really. I am a repbulican, and I thought I would never be defending a Clinton, but in all honesty I would vote for Hillary over Obama any day. I believe Hillary actually does love and appreciate this country even though I don’t share her political views. I believe Obama only uses America for his own good. He uses the opportunities the country provides to a minority like himself, then turns and bites the hand that fed him. I know how you feel Hillary supporters. The republicans didn’t nominate the right candidate either and now I have McCain supporters telling me I have to vote for McCain, well the truth is I don’t. I will vote for McCain if he earns it, and I don’t think Hillary supporters should vote Obama till the man earns it

Obama and Kilpatrick in the same jail cell. Sweet!

spock so apparently its ok for us to invade countries, its ok for georgia to break a treaty and invade ossetia, but my god if russia does it.... lets start another cold war!

Also Spock

what do you make of all of mccains flips on issues?

He has far more issues that he has flipped on... but those are justified by you im sure... when mccain makes gaffes and flips and gets facts completely wrong or uses crazy false attack ads.. its ok its justified

but obama does any of those things, and you guys start foaming at hte mouth calling him out, pointing fingers "oh my god did you hear what he said!!!"

mccain can travel to other countries and gives speeches in iraq, afghanistan, south america, canada, and thats fine...

but obama travles abroad and hes presumptious and arrogant...

Mccain can speak out about the terrible things in georgia and start talking tough politics and well do this and well do that, and im sending my two guys over there, and we need to do something

and thats ok

but obama says something like that and its

oh obamas soooo full of himself, theres only one president at a time obama sheesh man this guy thinks hes ruling th world

why do you give mccain the pass

obama cant say 57 states

but mccain can refer to a country that hasnt existed for 16 years

obamas the idiot fool, and mccain is... well its ok for mccain he knows what hes talking about so what he gets all these facts wrong on his supposedly "strongest " campaign platform

i mean cmon... you just want to destroy obama because for whatever reason you think the old guy whos losing his mind and that will continue the bush agendas is the guy you want running hte show...

well tahts great, i mean thanks for voting for bush twice... the country is far better off for it everyone can see that... i mean... lets just cross our fingers and hope that other people want to continue on this same bogus path...

i mean honorable path

"The fact that Obama is a gentleman ... "
-----
We know it's "new politics" and all, but we're PRETTY sure a "gentleman" candidate wouldn't refer publicly to his own grandmother as "a typical white person" ...

... THEN use visiting the maligned matriarch as the excuse to remove himself from the press while people fall over dead, and are run right out of the "news" by a dubious military dustup.

McCain today:

"We have just found out in the last few days that we live in a very dangerous world"

Heh.

Obama himself said at one point, that it didn't feel right attacking someone from his own party. I think you will see a more robust and hard hitting candidate in the General Election debates.

re: Mike
"Do you think it was wise of President Saakashvili to invade Ossetia"

very bad, maybe fatal miscalculation on his part....

spock, what country is yours?

Nobody needs to make any excuses for Russia retaliating against Georgia, McCain's lobbyist advisor and Saakashvili gave them enough already.

John Mccain has strengths in debating? My God what a story! What are they???

Chris,

You and all the rest of the Republicans better remember, that the last few debates you saw Obama in he was debating another Dem - Hillary.

For the sake of the party and being that Hillary is a woman (that was known to cry) he had to hold back and take it easier on her...

Just wait until Barack gets up there with McSenile. It won't be pretty for the cranky old man. Without a phony Repub stacked town hall to lean on for softball questions, he is going to be in trouble!

Crank up the McCain gaffe machine! On top of that I am sure the Obama camp is researching hot button points and themes to get McCains goat and make him lose it on stage in front of the whole country!

McNasty is going to be seen for what he really is, a forgetful old angry warmongering fool!

Ha, ha, ha, ha,ha, ha, ha!!!

Can't wait for the first debate!

Obama '08!!!

I see people talking about russia below, why is it that Obama/liberals seem to be making excuses for Russia invading another country while attacking our Country for defending itself and following the UN charter!!

As far as Obama, he will be shown for the flipper he is, I wonder if his buddy william ayers will be there!!

Yes the liberal ran debates, Why did the RNC committee accept these debates, all the moderators are known liberals.

They will throw softball questions at Obama.

Can wait, yes it will be oh Obama was so good, mcCain looked tired!!

"just for my own edification ... what exactly is the 'moral difference' you imply?"

see what I mean!

Here's a good question - "Do you think it was wise of President Saakashvili to invade Ossetia, thus breaking an international agreement?"

re: geeviil
"Obama and liberal supporters see no moral difference between Russia's actions and the US."

... just for my own edification ... what exactly is the 'moral difference' you imply?

I hope the debates aren't scheduled past mccain's bedtime...

I can't remember, who was the candidate that said "um, ah, well, ok, um, maybe, um ah" in the last debate? Was it Obama?

US troops deployed overseas are donating six times as much money to Obama than they are to McCain.

"We all know that Iraq was a big mistake"

The fact that Obama is a gentleman and was debating a woman and was more mindful than his opponent on party unity made him less willing to be aggressive.

McCain's ads and smwears has motivated him and he will do extremely well!

I think we'll see more of the Senate race Obama in the debates with McCain. He had to be cautious in the primary because he was debating a woman--look how hard he got beat up for the "likeable enough" line. If he went easy on her he was being condescending, if he was tough he was a bully. He won't have to navigate that line this time.

Obama and his supporters manipulating party caucuses for extra delegates is a show of excellent Unity

01.20.2009 The End of an "ERROR".

Obama and liberal supporters see no moral difference between Russia's actions and the US. Which is why we will be saying President McCain next January.

Clinton's name will be put in nomination at convention

If she wins it will be a 3 for 1 victory. We will get rid of Obama, Peloci, and Harry Reed and the debate will be between Hillary and John McCain.

not to put too fine a point on common sense issues,..but.... I've always wondered which candidates really believe (no Nixonian pun intended) that if America does it it's all right but if another country does the exact same thing, it's a threat to the world.... sort of the modern 'my country right or wrong' theory..

although the many reasons given for the U.S. involvement in Iraq are different now then originally offered by Pres. Bush,.. the result as with the Russian incursion into Georgia are the same.... one country uses it's forces in another for political solutions....

would love to hear both candidates speak on that......

remember countries dont invade other countries in the 21st century

LOL

who here stands behind this mccain comment?

McCain may have his senior moments ('In the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations'), but the McMedia will cover for him, so it doesn't matter.

re: D'Obama
"If - finally - Obama is asked the questions he hasn't answered (relationships w/ shady figures, his abortion positions, his Marxist-tax policies),"

well,.... there certainly are a lot of questions that could be asked of McCain also, working with Ralph Reed, marital affairs & abandonment of his 1st wife,, campaign staff that are the biggest lobbyists in D.C....Phil Graham..and with very little effort a large list of seeming 'flip-flops' he usually can't remember that he spoke about... McCain's pat answers about 'America' as a response to everything he's asked that is uncomfortable for him at some point will not be enough.

and just to be fair.... there are a lot of things Obama needs to clear up policy wise,..

but as you can see, if one wants to dish the dirt on meaningless issues there is more than enough to go around for all concerned in both parties.

D'Obama,

We'll see about that. Without his notes and a phony Repub stacked "town hall" John McCain will turn into an angry gaffe machine.

You can just bet the Obama team is already coming up with all kinds of points/themes to get that old guys goat and get him to lose his temper and explode!

Obama is going to wipe the floor with McSurge....

Obama '08!!!!

I think all Democrats should sue John Edwards for all the campaign contributions to be returned

You people are kidding yourselves if you think Obama will walk all over McCain. W/out a teleprompter, Obama folds into a rash of pauses, and "ya-knows" and says things like, if we only gave a kid w/ asthma a "breathalizer." McCain isn't a great speaker, but if they really get down to facts and real policy decisions, there is a real opening for McCain! If - finally - Obama is asked the questions he hasn't answered (relationships w/ shady figures, his abortion positions, his Marxist-tax policies), McCain could gain.

Alan Keyes is a nutjob who earns a living running as a black Republican. He is and never was a serious candidate.

Ifill is a personal friend of Rice, and Scheiffer of Bush. I dont think Obama should have agreed to any of these debates.

If you remember 2000, Gore cleaned Bush's clocks, according to the public opinion polls of the debate, but the talking heads liked Bush better, and they kept yammering about him winning until everyone forgot what really happened.

One flaw with Fallows' argument: on the one hand, he says that Keyes is considered a good debater; on the other hand, he states that McCain is a terrible debater. Why then is it smart for Obama to treat McCain like Keyes if they are so different? I think if Obama dismisses McCain quickly or with attitude, he will perhaps come across as too callous and condescending. I think it is best for Obama to let McCain dig his own grave. No need to kick a dead horse while its down.

ptu

smith,

The bottom line is that all the myths in the book have all been proven as false.

I thought Repubs were for the TRUTH irrespective of who spoke it.

Another hypocricy from the Repulicans? You only accept the TRUTH as told by you? What a self righteous bunch.

Hmm, I think that will be about as exciting as watching paint dry.

JT

all depends on whether real thinking questions are asked by the 'moderators' on issues that require analysis.... :
if McCain gets questions along the 'do you think it's good for Americans to serve in the military?' he'll do well.....and if his questions are ones that his answers can be kept short... he should be all right........during the Repub debates he seemed to get a little bit angry and sarcastic..

Obama should have the advantage of 'thinking on his feet' better than McCain.... but he must give clearer more concise answers without delving into the shaded nuances he is prone to... if he's asked policy quetsions he will do well as will he with issues like race, gender etc. if they're brought up.

Recently when asked about coverage for birth control vrs. viagra McCain just about froze up..if a question does that to him during the debate he's done.

just my $.02 worth

unless they have prepared answers both Obama and McCain will be ummm ummmm all over the place.

Can you imagine the outcry if Obama had come down hard on Hillary> You should hear my mother on the subject of even the mildest and most purely political attacks on HC. He had to wear kid gloves.

He will, however, show McCain no mercy.

The debates will be no contest between McCain and Obama. Just watch the two of them speak, teleprompters or no, the more effective debater is instantly obvious.

However, by the time we see these debates, most of the voters will have decided who they are voting for, and the debates will probably do little to change anyone's opinion.

Nevertheless, it will be funny, there should be some high-squirm-factor moments between these two guys.

A debate between state senate candidates and presidential candidates is hardly comparable. Presidential candidates have to have much deeper knowledge on a much broader spectrum of issues. Obama's inexperience will prove a hindrance, thus his aversion to meeting McCain "anytime and anywhere" as he likes to assert.

cant wait for the debates mccain will not have liberman to whisper in his ear nothing written for him no teleprompter,not that hes even good with that,Ever notice mccain with the press when they ask questions he always looks down to read something oh mccain you will be the laughing stock of those debates cant wait obama08

I've watched several clips of the debates with Alan Keyes, and Obama cleaned his clock.

The Obama of the democratic debates and the Obama of the general election debates will be two different animals.

I think it's a huge misconception that Obama is a "weak" debater, but I'm glad that this is the current CW. It only means that when he kicks McCain's butt it will be all the rage.

Keyes is now trying to knock McCain off of the ballot since mcCain isnt a natural born citizen. It'll be interesting to see how far that goes.

Obama had party interests in mind when he faced Hillary, even though she was out of hers.
With McCain he only has to stand there and watch McCain self-destruct!
I can't wait!

Obama's raspy smoker's voice grates on me like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Teleprompters? McCain's greenwall speech is a prescibed sleep aid. He looked stupid doing the cha-cha from teleprompter to teleprompter. This guy is toast!! He will loose his cool without Leiberman whisperin' sweet nothings in his ear. McCain is far from the sharpest knife in the draw.

Excuse me-have you seen McCain speak? Even with a guided script he still screws up. Let's see-he's going to veto beer, he's going to send hot bottled water to babies, I could go on forever. McCain will be a stumbling fool on stage during the debates. Without Liberman there feeding him all the answers he doesn't stand a chance.

Obama respected his fellow democrats that is why he didn't 'jab' during the debates. Put him on a stage with McCain and you will see some knock out blows! I am ready for the debates.

Obama doesn't stand a chance without teleprompters and practiced script. This will be TV comedy history in the making. The O can always fall back as a stand up after it's over.