Live-Bloggin' the Debate

jpt: "Obama may have conveyed a lot of things tonight, but I don't think he seemed unprepared"

huh?

how can someone who has never done anything but talk in his life be prepared for the biggest job in the world?

Never had an employee. Won't talk about his only "executive role" - Annenburg Challenge. Never been in business. Never published a legal paper (except 1 or 2 opinions in college). Never sponsered legislation of any import, but lied about a bunch.

If this is "not unprepared", then everyone reading this column is just as prepared.

Could this country actually consider electing someone who has never done ANYTHING but talk in his life? It's mind-boggling.

Now we know that not only Obama can lead, but also he had a plan for the future of this great country!
Now McCain can snooze at night!. Obama can answer the 03.00 am call any time!
Rebublicans can spin like wash machine all day long! The truth is
Senator McCain past actually impairs him from to be flexible and confront the future with open mind. .Senator Obama foreign policy is moderate but also smart. That helps to keep our friends near, and or foes nearer!
What an ostrich and the Republicans have in common? Let me guess!
An ostrich bury its head in the sand and pretend everything is fine.
Republicans do the same and follow McCain!

McCain's body language was downright disrespectful. Even when Obama said "John" it was in a friendly way and he used it when saying McCain did have some valid points. Other times, he said Senator McCain.

In a debate like this, content is important, but body language is to.

The average person doesn't watch the debate like the pundits do-scrutinising every single point and argument. They watch body-language too. Most polls gave it to Obama. The general sentiment was that Obama appeared respectful and presidential in addition to proving he was no lightweight on foreign policy-supposed to be McCain's turf. Many felt McCain appeared disrespectful, by not looking at Obama and snickering whenever Obama talked.

Obama called McCain John, if you noticed was mostly when he said McCain made some valid points, and he said it in a respectful, not mocking voice. Other times, he referred to him as Senator McCain.

McCain is too confrontational, he appears too much to have the "Us vs Them
and Axis of Evil mentality to label countries. The thing is, nothing is in black and white. No matter what Iran's president says, Iran is not very democratic, it does not neccessarily reflect the opinions of the millions of Iranians who don't have a say. He didn't remember that. I thought it fitting McCain's podium was under the eagle talon that had arrows clutched in them, and Obama, the olive branch.

MEW - Sure you right wing nuts get it when there are not move of you nuts around. Obama/Biden 2008!

ATE YOU HEART OUT!

I would agree with that, but McCain's defensive body language and the fact he would not even look at Obama makes for a lousy first impression and that is not overcome with time. That is seared in a person's memory.

They tell you to look at the person you are talking about face to face and McCain wouldn't!

gl,

"Right wing nuts" get it!!!

Watching cnn. Obama's scoring w/ the Independents and Dems. McCain mainly scores w/ the Republicans.
Posted by: Vanessa

This is what the right wing nuts don't get. We all know by know what we will be voting for but not the 20 percent of undecided and independents voter which those are the one Obama have connected with at this debate as I was watching it on CNN. McCain and his camp still haveing reached out to them or any middle class voters. Not once did McCain mention helping the middle class.

Leonard Peltier - I agree with you we need all the Republican out of the office.

You guys posting on this site have been posting for months and you are not the one we want to her from becasue we already know who you are voting for months ago. I want to hear from undecided voters Not you right wing nuts that post on her everyday and night. ONLY UNDECIDED VOTERS ONLY

McCain was in his element.
A lying, swaggering, wacko.
He committed political
suicide in the debate with
his bad performance.

Mike,

Get Real. McCain paranoid? Never. It's called "realism." He has a realistic view of the world, based on his experience. He confronts the dangers of the world with clear eyes. He has the good judgment to believe that war should be a last resort but would use force when necessary to protect American interests. Ironically, it seems to me, it is Obama who sounds pretty quick on the trigger, wanting to fight Pakistan, watnting to sound tough. As McCain said to Obama last night, you don't point a gun if you don't intend to shoot it. McCain is a responsible, capable, prepared leader with a clear vision of America's place in the world. That came across last night. Sorry you could not allow yourself to see it.

McCain says he doesn't "need any on-the-job training." Yea, but his VP running mate do and I don't think there is enough time for Ms. Sara Palin to get that training by next Thursday. See what McCain keep forgeting he that fact that he is very old and have cancer so his running mate chose should have been some this experience of some sorts which Sara Palin have zero experience. McCain will lose this election behind his VP running mate and Thursday will say it all.

Brenda,

Well said!!! Obama cares about the middle class about like Iran cares
about Isreal.

P3ng

If you BELIEVE that Obama cares about the middle class, you need to ask yourself why he failed at every project he BEGAN but didn't finish in Chicago. Those people were BELOW middle class and Obama failed them. If you doubt that, you may want to look at the neighborhood Obama worked in and for. He didn't want to help the middle class or the lower class, he merely needed a stepping stone for his ambitions. He didn't last two years before he was saying I need to be a politician, THAT'S HOW I can help these people. So, he became a politician, and lo and behold, those people are still living as they were when Obama was community organizing. Even the "garden" that Obama got an earmark for never went up and that money cannot be accounted for (an Obama supporter and fundraiser by the way got that money). Obama cares about the middle class so much that he voted present 130 times. He cares so much that the first thing he did upon becoming a US Senator was to start running for President, and didn't even hold meetings in his own committees to do AMERICAN business for AMERICAN people. So keep drinking your koolaid. Obama doesn't have it.

He's a Chicago politician determined to feed his own ego, not the poor people.

Obama came over as a very angry highschooler.....

Disrespectful - If Senator John McCain is old; he should respect his elders.

Bracelet - I've got one too. How childish.

Job Interview - Senator John McCain
is most experienced.

Our country is in crisis -
Obama spells FEDERAL PROGRAMS, FEDERAL PROGRAMS, "Early Childhood Education, etc.

Easy win for McCain. He has a really good grasp of the issues and a record of getting stuff done.

Conversely, Obama has rhetoric and no record. I was shocked how disrespectful and malicous Obama seemed yesterday, constantly interrupting McCain while he spoke, and addressing him by his first name.

Most folks agree that Obama didn''t look like the proverbial "cool customer" last night, instead he seemed angry when he wasn''t speaking, and when he did speak, standoffish.

Now we know that not only Obama can lead, but also he had a plan for the future of this great country!
Now McCain can snooze at night. Obama can answer the 03.00 am call any time!

Jake, thanks for liveblogging the debate for us to follow. I read your blog after watching it on television. Have this observation to make: it's about respect, and McCain's lack of it for foreign leaders, for his opponent Obama, the American people, particularly the low and middle class, and the educated.

McCain never mentioned the middle class in his addresses.

In his attempts to paint Obama as naive, he came across as petty, belittling, derisive, and just negative and uninspiring, when in this time we the American people want inspiration to get us through the dark times with the economy and the war, and global warming.

McCain isn't one to school somehow else on foreign policy, being one that confused the PM of Spain as a Lat. Am. dictator. On Pakistan, McCain shows he's out of touch with reality, because American military is already attacking targets inside of Pakistan, and just the other day it was reported the Pakistani army shot down one of our drones. This insistence by McCain ultimately shows he has no respect for the American voters intelligence.

I can go on...But sum it up in one word, and it's spelled R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Above all, I believe, and maybe I'm alone in this, that one who aspires to be the President of the United States of America, should respect the position and the qualifications for it. It means making sure your Number 2 is qualified to replace you. It means respecting the duties of the President, and not to overstep the other branches, or the inherent power of we the people. It means understanding that the President is the moral authority in the country, because we're both a religious group of people, yet secular in governance, and it befalls on the President to model behavior and mores that the rest of the nation follows.

You know Obama won the debate when foxnews website poll has it 50-50. Majority (70%) of those polling are conservatives.