***DISCLAIMER***
Firstly, I originally posted this on my facebook as a note to be viewed by the few politically-conscious friends I have on there. I decided to post it as a diary on Daily Kos mainly to get others thoughts on this analysis of mine.
Keep in mind that this is not an "article" per say, by any means. It is a analyis of my thoughts on the debate in no journalistic manner. Random ideas strung together, if you will. However, enjoy.
Alright, wow, just wow, to start things off. I have to say that John McCain resembled, more than anything, a dog backed into a corner by a lion, fighting for his life. All he did was attack, attack, attack. Sure, there were brief instances of semi-coherent policies coming out of him, but this was more a less a display of attack politics of the highest nature.
Pretty massive diary, if I say so myself, after the jump.
First off, I wanted to say that tonight's debate moderator, Bob Schieffer did an excellent job tonight. Much, much bette than Tom Brokaw did at last weeks debate. He was cool and calm, and asked tougher questions in general. Good job, Bobby.
Okay. I do have to say that McCain did have his best performance out of the 3 presidential debates held. Although, I also have to state that that isn't really a hard thing to accomplish given his last 2 debate performances. He had Obama on defense for the first half-hour, though Barack held his ground and answered the questions asked with grace and confident. However, McCain absolutley needed to win this final debate, handily. He did not accompish that task. He seemed grumpy, contemptuous and all around ill-tempered. He did look Obama in the eyes this time but whilst doing so he seemed cocky and arrogant.
Repeatedly, John McCain denied his negative campaign tactics. His campaign has been chock full of the negative ads and speeches and talking points in general. The economic crisis is at the forefront of everyone's minds and McCain's campaign has put Bill Ayers at the center, the primary topic, of his whole campaign. For the last two weeks while everyone has been wanting to hear what the candidates plans are McCain has done nothing except promote violent behavior at his rallies and repeatedly try and distract the public fom the economy with talk of Bill Ayers and ACORN nonsense. Barack Obama, meanwhile has layed out, in detail, his plans to turn this economy, and country, around. John McCain needed a game-changer tonight ad that did not happen. His basic goal of the discussion tonight was to change voters minds. The country, as a whole, is more supportive of Obama and his policies than McCain. McCain's favorability ratings continue to fall as his unfavorability ratings climb, by the day. In fact, in a recent Washington Post/ ABC News poll 51% said McCain would continure Bush's failed policies. Obama is winning "economy voters" by 62% to Johnny Mac's 32%, nearly 2-1 ratio. Voters are pretty much divided on whether or not McCain is risky while 55% say Obama is a safe choice compared to 45% who say he is risky. McCain has led in this area up until now.
Joe the Plumber. Haha, McCain brought up this story of a plumber named Joe that Obama had a discussion with at a campaign stop. McCain tried to portray Obama as wanting to tax small business in doing so. However, Obama swiftly corrected this often repeated lie that John McCain continues to repeat any chance he gets. 98% of small businesses don't make more than $250,000 a year and therefore, small businesses, in general, will not have their taxes raised and in fact will tax cuts to help them pay their employees and pay their healthcare. Minus one McCain. Nice try, but quite ineffective story. I doubt that Joe the Plumber now supports McCain anyway, haha.
Almost suprisingly, there was a discussion of Bill Ayers and ACORN. McCain finally worked up the balls to state these accusations to Obama's face. I know, whoooaaaa. Haha. However, Obama once again, swiftly responded stating the facts. That he and Bill Ayers served together, along with Republicans and Democrats alike, on a Republican-founded (Ronald Reagan's former Ambassodor to the U.K) public schooling reform board, the Annenberg Foundation. He said that he condemned Ayers terrorist actions that took place when he, Obama, was 8 years old and also that he is in no way involved in his campaign. Everyone, except conservatives know that. He also clarified that he is in no way involved with ACORN (a voter registration group that has recently been accused of committing voter registration fraud) other than representing them a number of years ago, alongside the Justice Department. On a side note, even though ACORN committed registration fraud it doesn't really matter. All they did was register a bunch of fake people, or registered people multiple times. This is not voter fraud. Its not like all these fake people or people registered more than once are going to be able to vote come election day, or vote more than once for the latter. All it essentially does is add voters to the party I.D. database. Basically, this will have no effect on the election results. I think John McCain should be ashamed of himself for portraying ACORN, a group who is based on helping poor people vote, as such an abomination. I guess I can see why Republicans wouldn't want poor people to vote, though.
One interesting note, for all the shit Obama took during the primaries, Barack was the one tonight with the flag pin on his lapel. John McCain's was strangely absent tonight. hmmm. Why isn't anyone calling him an America-hating UNpatriot. Haha. For the record, I don't think wearing, or not wearing for that matter, a flag pin means that anyone is any less of a patriot than anyone else. McCain not wearing one tonight is just a funny little anecdote if anything.
This debate, overall, in my opinion, is definately the best of the three. Both candidates engaged each other more than the other two debates and I felt there was a decently healthy discussion tonhight. Definately 10 times better than the Brokaw-moderated debate where he acted like a teacher scolding their students with that ridiculous 1-minute follow up time limit. Tonight there was a lot of back and foth between the candidates after the original question was asked. Props go to Bob Scheiffer for doing a hell of a job.
I was happy to see education get some decent discussion time. Obama made clear that school vouchers alone will not help our education system. He also, after McCain mentioned it, stated the failure of George Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act" that cuts funding from schools who don't pass the standardized test. How are schools that can't pass this test supposed to get the resources and funds they need to educate their children to pass the test when it gets cut for that very reason. Seemslike a paradox of sorts, to me. America's students have fallen behind in education on the world scale and we need a president who will put education at a high priority. The children are this country's future and we need to start treating them as such. Obama stated, that the very fact that they are America's future, is one of the number one factors in fixing our economy.
Overall, I think Obama won this debate tonight. His answers were clear, well thought out and to the point. McCain's statements were mostly negative, somewhat incoherent at times. He failed miserably at attempting to win this thing. Barack Obama showed a calm, confident and collected character and displayed the quintessential leadership and commanding audacity we've come to know and love. He was at the top of his game as usual, whereas McCain seemed to be desperate and frenzied in the nature that his atrociously impetuous campaign has shown all year.
Bottom line, this dreadful performance of McCain's might just be the nail in the coffin for his pathetic bid at the Presidency. To quote JMac himself, he has been "taking the low road to the highest office in the land" this entire election and it hasn't and will not prove fruitful.