Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Presidential Debate III: The Final Conflict! Nerds in Paradise! Citizens on Patrol!

I'm a bit cheesed off - McCain said "My friends" exactly once, at the end, and I had already finished my gin and fruit juice. Dang it.

Anyway, on to the post-mortem:

Body language:
Obama seemed fairly calm, with only a slight tightening of the lips to show any reaction to attacks on him (the campaign knew that Ayers would be brought up, among other things, in an attempt to break Obama's cool exterior). My assessment of the effect of McCain's attempts to needle him? Ineffective.
McCain seemed a bit jumpy, showing a lot more emotional reaction. He smirked uncomfortably a great deal, apparently told not to smile open-mouthed by his aides, and he glared at Obama when Obama brought up various topics like the rather obvious hatred spewing from spectators at recent GOP rallies.

Issues:
Obama tried to stay very on point (and I thought his bringing up the Ledbetter case on equal pay was a great segue from the question on abortion rights). He had figures on hand, and at every opportunity tried to keep the discussion civil and focused.
McCain, to be fair, also tried to stay on target, but would stray into attacking Obama in order to get under his skin. He failed to achieve that goal, rather obviously, and it seemed to nettle him in the way he said, "Good job, good job" at the end of the debate.
Both candidates got their points across.

Moderation:
Schieffer was the best of the three moderators, keeping them on the subject and maintaining a good watch on the time.

Who won:
I have to give this to Obama. His policies make more sense on paper (and we've seen Bush try to pay for tax cuts with more tax cuts), seem more grounded in reality and he failed to rise to McCain's baiting of him.

I think the polls will give this one to Obama as well, making him 3-0.

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