Presidential Debate 2 - What Happened October 7, 2008
Posted: Wednesday, October 08, 2008
by Judge Dred
Presidential Debate 2 has come and gone.
Both candidates, for t
he most part, were on their best behavior. The town hall setting allowed the candidates freedom of movement. This favored Obama, for we could all see the physical differences between the two men. McCain, a shorter, older looking man, who has slight limitations with his movement, due to documented physical injuries sustained in the Vietnam War, looked somewhat uncomfortable. Obama, a tall, lean athletic looking man, easily moved around the stage. The moderator, Tom Brokaw, did a much better job keeping the candidates in line than the other moderators in the series of debates.
Both candidates stayed true to their scripts. Obama, as the apparent frontrunner, remained on an even emotional keel, answered questions, and spoke to the audience in a direct manner. He did not engage McCain in any verbal jousting. McCain, as the candidate trailing in the race, was on the attack most of the night, and spoke in a condescending manner to some of the audience members. While Obama spoke, McCain looked to have been restless, not able to stay seated.
One thing that struck me was when McCain, while answering a question about "What does the financial rescue package mean for me?", stated, "I'll bet you may not have heard about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before a couple of weeks ago" to the young man that asked him the question. Was McCain being presumptuous, or did he think the man was not caught up on current events?
McCain tried the Obama "doesn't understand" line again. Obama was ready for it. He stated that McCain was right, "I don't understand how we invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11", and "That was Senator McCain's judgment, and it was wrong".They exchanged differing viewpoints over health care, taxes (Obama - tax those making more than $250,000, McCain - tax no one) and foreign policy.
McCain did introduce an idea - order the Secretary of the Treasury "buy up" all of the bad mortgages and pay a different amount based on the new value of the re-calculated mortgage. Sounds like billions of dollars for Rescue Package, Part 2. Don't know how that goes over with the base of the Republican Party.
Do I want to talk about the bizarre "that one" reference to Obama? How about telling Brokaw that he would not nominate him for Secretary of the Treasury? McCain never mentioned Sarah Palin, but referenced Joe Liberman. I'll leave those strange occurrences alone.
The one good thing? No sleazy politics during the debate. McCain did not connect with a knockout blow, and Obama basically counterpunched the entire night. This debate did not rate high on the excitement scale, and who knows what the last debate holds for us. One last question. Do we want a president that would "Bomb, bomb. bomb Iran", and have North Korea next on the bombing list? I don't. Until next time
JD
This Article has been viewed 886 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)hi jd,this was another well written, interesting article. i like tom brokaw, but i didn't think he had as much rein on the candidates who went over every answer.thanks for sharing,best regards,sue thomThank you Sue,I feel that Brokaw had more control over the debate than Ifill did with the vice presidential debate. However, time limits meant absolutely nothing to Obama and McCain. It was almost time for coffee just before it ended. Thanks again.JD
Thanks, JD, for the brilliant summary. On the moderator, I prefer they give the candidates greater freedom to ask one another, engage each other more, flex the time constraints, so we can see a real debate, a good ole fashion verbal wrestling match. ~mogama~Hi mogama,Thanks for the complement and for sharing your thoughts. I hope this final debate is a little more free wheeling than the last two. Like you, I want to see a good ol' knockdown, drag em' out verbal joust. Thanks again.JD
Good review of a boring debate by two men who love America.Hi Walter,Thanks for commenting. This debate was close to being a snoozefest. I had to listen closely for the important points, for there was no real excitement during the debate. Let's hope the last one is gut wrenching with lots of back and forth between the two.JD
Another excellent article, JD. Keep up the good work!Thanks Mark,I am looking forward to the last debate. Wonder if there are any surprises in store?
JD
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.