Friday, September 26, 2008

Presidential Candidate Debate

I just finished watching the debate between Obama and McCain. Admittedly, my mind is already made up as to which candidate I will vote for in November. I thought that both candidates did a pretty good job of presenting their positions and can't say that I was surprised by anything that either one of them said tonight.

McCain kind of hammered away at the inexperience issue by repeatedly saying "You don't understand" to Obama. This kind of puts me off a little bit, because it sounds a bit condescending and shows a lack of respect. I think if I were undecided, this might sway me towards Obama. I also like the fact that Obama agreed with McCain on several issues. I am happy to see that he will not dismiss ideas out of hand just because they came from the opposite party.

From watching some of the post-debate shows on various news channel, it doesn't sound like there was a clear "winner" from this debate. I think that helps Obama, since the topic of the debate was foreign policy, and this is one area where McCain is favored by the voting public, and I think he needed to score more points here.

I would guess that this was a pretty good debate for undecided voters, but I realize that I am not looking at this with an unbiased opinion. Did this debate help any undecided voters with their decision, and if so, what impact did it have?

3 comments:

reddog said...

I think everybody has already decided. The choice seems clear and easy. People that say they haven't decided are lying, maybe even to themselves. I'm not very happy with either of them but my decision is clear in my mind.

This is the easiest choice I've ever had and that goes back to 1972. Not only the Presidential candidates but the Vice Presidential are completely polarizing. They might as well have the election tomorrow.

The one interesting thing about this race, is that I don't have any sense of who will win. I know many on both sides who are not going to vote for the Party that they usually do and many who don't usually vote who will this time.

One way or the other, big changes in the wind. I'm not as coy as you. Anyone that reads my blog knows what I think.

Navy Blue Cougar said...

I am not trying to be coy, but I am not overly enthusiastic about either candidate. I think that a McCain administration will be bad for the country

I like the things that Obama says, and he is the one that I will be voting for come November.

For me, the biggest selling point for Obama is that he seems to care much more about giving average Americans a chance to better their lives than McCain does.

The GOP seems to think the way to win Americans over to their cause is by feeding the fears of the American people and presenting themselves as the only choice to protect us.

I really believe that the policies of the Bush administration have damaged our international standing. A lot of conservatives seem to think that we don't need to care what other nations think of us. We don't need to make sweeping social changes in our country simply to please other nations, but it seems that we go out of our way to disagree with other nations that should be considered our good friends in the international community.

Seems like it would be a lot easier to deal with international problems if we have a lot more international friends.

reddog said...

I meet a lot of veterans and servicemen your age and younger that are going with Obama and that is also true of the population in general. Barry seems to have a big edge with the younger demographic.

I agree that we could use more friends in the World. Barry might help with that.