For me, watching this debate, it was a pretty strong victory for Obama. His ability to hang with McCain on the issues of foreign policy, when McCain is supposed to have a ton of experience on foreign policy, shows clearly that Obama can stand with the big boys. Time and time again he would wade through McCain's mischaracterization of his stance, and then restate his own stance.
And, yet, the media is likely to spin this as a victory for McCain. Obama's inability to take control of the conversation when McCain would misrepresent his view (simply because McCain would keep talking), thus forcing Obama to try and talk over the moderator, makes Obama look bad. McCain's sniveling comments, funny faces, and mis-speaks show me why he is not someone we want to lead our country...for those that are small town, he comes off as folksy. Obama, with all his facts and plans comes off as elitist. How do I know this? My one Republican friend, who claimed the other day she was likely going to vote for Obama, said Obama came off as all holier than thou and his tone was disgusting. That's likely to be the reason small town America will connect with McCain in this debate. Even though Obama thrashed McCain on Iraq laying out clearly every issue in Iraq that McCain was wrong on. And McCain came off as lecturing Obama on foreign policy simply because he claims to have "more experience." He said, and I quote, "I honestly don't believe that Sen. Obama has the knowledge or experience and has made the wrong judgments in a number of areas, including his initial reaction to Russian invasion...uh...aggression in Georgia." Wow. Just wow.
Let's also note that McCain made a huge gaffe on the issue of Pakistan, stating that it was a failed state when Musharraf took over...and yet I bet the media finds a way to spin that as a possibility since he did come into power during a coup.
All in all, a failure by McCain to win this debate (pundits seem to be calling it a tie), is likely a long term victory for Obama.
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