Tie

Posted at 10:14 pm on Sunday, September 28, 2008, in Uncategorized, and tagged 2008, debate, mccain, obama.

I just know you have been waiting for my thoughts on this, so here goes…

Although Barack Obama won the first debate — on points, style, and “presidentiality” — the debate ended up being a tie because John McCain had such low expectations, and Obama had the exact opposite. In a week defined by the bailout and McCain looking like a politician trying to capitalize on the issue, this was Obama’s debate to lose (even if it was centered on foreign policy). By the way, the fact that Obama earned a tie in the foreign policy debate is a major win for the democrat.

Obama made a key mistake, in my opinion, at the very end when he brought up his life story — his father being from Kenya — not because it is not important to stress his background, but that it allowed McCain to mention his POW status immediately afterward. Had McCain brought up his POW status first — which he has done to defend or duck almost any issue nowadays — it would have seemed a political play (along with the Palin pick and his briefly suspended campaign ploy), but as it happened, McCain was simply following up on Obama’s biographical talking point (read: fair game).

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