Debates of all ilk

[Tenigma]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Thank goodness no one said "Maverick".
I lost track of how many times "my friends", "look" (mostly by Obama) and "fundamental" were used.

I completely agree, "maverick" would've had me doing the ol'

If nothing else, the debate to me didn't seem to have any clear winner on answers. They both did OK, but for the most part it was a snoozer. There were a couple of interesting moments, though, including:

McCain trying to (I *think*) say jokingly, "That one." Except as with most of the rest f his "jokes" during the debates, it fell flat. Worse, because of his general body posture and his odd whisper-speak tone of voice, it actually gave the phrase a kind of cruel tone. I can just see the Penguin referring to Batman and saying, "And you know who tried to save the burning building? That one! Nyuck nyuck nyuck." I don't think that's what he wanted to convey.

...and the bloggers are all over that one. "How dare McCain use such a phrase! He can't even bring himself to say Obama's name!"

Whatever. I think it's blown out of proportion. I thought it was an attempt a humor that fell flat. Although I REALLY don't think McCain meant it in an insulting manner, unfortunately for McCain, I think it came off that way.

When asked by Brokaw whom they would consider appointing as Secretary of the Treasury, McCain's first answer was, "Not you, Tom." HUH?

Yet again, McCain was trying to be funny. And it didn't work. I think part of the problem was that he didn't say anything else in that sentence, and it came out kind of brusque, so whatever disarming quality a joke may have provided there, completely missed. Brokaw was kind of taken aback by it initially too, I think.

When Obama mentioned that McCain said accused him of being green behind the ears and just spouting off, and how McCain is somber and responsible, McCain laughs in the background and says thank you.

Unfortunately for McCain, I think Obama had that whole line memorized... including that pregnant pause (and there was NO way to know that McCain would say anything, although it was almost like McCain fell right into the trap), because in his next breath, Obama said McCain was the guy who sang "bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran," called for the annihilation of North Korea, and said "next up, Baghdad."

Kind of shut McCain up real fast, that line did. I thought that was Obama's big zinger (especially since McCain took the bait).

However, Sen. Obama, the line is NOT "bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran." You left off a few bombs there. Would've been better if you'd said it right.

[And while I'm at it, McCain may have mentioned that as some sort of inside joke or attempt at humor, but I heard Rachel Maddow later say that the McCain camp started using the Beach Boys' BarbaraAnn song in his stumpings afterwards, so it may have been a joke but they did run with it.]

Originally Posted by Alex

Also, while it may sound good and seem directed at helping Main Street, but the government simply buying all the mortgages and repegging them at current value is simply a horrible idea. For either end of the political spectrum.

I'm not sure what McCain is thinking with that.

I think McCain wanted to come out with something new and shiny, that he could offer to the audience as a take-away from the debate. I agree that just buying them up is terrible; it will simply encourage everyone who feels even remotely financially challenged to throw up their hands and ask for government assistance. It would be far easier to have government help these folks renegotiate their mortgages to get a better interest rate or help them get off of their adjustable-rate mortgages so it's not fluctuating so much.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I have to wonder why John McCain was so clearly uncomfortable with the format he pushed and pushed for. He even got in a dig about Obama not wanting to participate in Town Hall debates. Yet Obama was poised, comfortable and ultimately presidential. McCain was nervous, testy, petulant and obviously ill-at ease.

That's because the debate format from last night was unlike any town hall format McCain's ever had. That wasn't a town hall. Like Alex said, it was two parallel press conferences.

The town halls McCain does is much more free-wheeling. The moderator barely moderates at all. The audience last night were required to read off the question they had submitted; the regular ones don't have such restrictions. And most of all, in town halls the candidate gets to take more time answering the question, and then have a back-and-forth exchange with the person asking the question. The audience member can ask for clarification, disagree with the candidate, whatever. It has the potential to be a very interesting exchange.

This town hall didn't resemble anything like that. It was terrible.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

"Steady hand at the tiller" is not a line he should have used, much less TWICE.

Very ineffective for me because I didn't know what a tiller was. Since it's a rudder on a small boat, it makes sense since McCain is an old Navy guy, but I think it would've been far more effective for him to use the imagery of navigating a large carrier through dangerous waters or something. Instead, "tiller" made me think of a till plowing through a little vegetable garden. So I got this image in my head of an old man holding the till in an old garden. Plodding and old. Not good.

Originally Posted by Alex

Of course, I'm not sure why anybody would agree to moderate such an event in the first place. [Brokaw's] only job was to read note cards out loud.

I thought it was amusing at the end when the two senators went to stand together to face the audience, and in so doing, blocked Brokaw's view of the teleprompter... and Brokaw had to ask them to move so he could read the monitor. lol.