I watched the debate at a local gym in Philadelphia so I could monitor the Phils v. Dodgers baseball game while watching the debate.
Usually I watch the debates at home alone, so I was curious to see it in the company of local folks.
Well, the gym wasn't that crowded and most of folks were watching the game (Phils won...).
The guy on the tread mill next to me was watching the debate and from his reactions he looked like an Obama fan.
My reactions? Usually I've been very surprised that focus groups think that Obama wins these debates. Usually I think that McCain does surprisingly well, but my bar for him is low.
Last night I became convinced that McCain is a dangerously bad candidate. All kidding, all partisanship aside, I think he would be a very bad choice for President.
Go below the fold for the rest.
In performance terms he wasn't bad. I liked that Joe the Plumber trope. I thought the "I am not Bush...you should have run four years ago" material was excellent.
His need to do a version of "Sonny, you young people just don't know" hurts him. This is his tendency to tell the audience that "Senator Obama doesn't understand...." It reminds the audience that he is very old and it makes him seem 'grandpa-ish' because he can't usually prove that Senator Obama doesn't understand. When he got the details of Obama's health plan wrong, for example, it emphasized what Senator McCain didn't understand.
It doesn't help that he can't control his body very well. His jerky movements, his blinking eyes, his oddly timed tongue licks give him the appearance of an albino lizard.
His impatience and his inability to give the appearance that he listens thoughtfully to the other person worries me.
But a couple of things really raised alarm bells and convinced me that he really, really shouldn't be President. He doesn't just give the impression that he isn't listening, he also gives me the impression that he literally can not abide hearing stuff that doesn't match his seemingly long-held view of reality. When Obama tells him yet again how the Democratic tax plan will work, for example, McCain gives the impression that he wants Obama's words stricken from the record, or flattened. He doesn't reach back for new facts or come back with a story about what Obama has overlooked, he'll do something like, 'No, sir!' and repeat the original assertion. Something like,"So now Joe the Plumber is rich..." . On foreigh policy it will something like "General Petreus' plan is working..."
It makes it look like Senator McCain has tunnel vision.
It makes it look like Senator McCain really was at the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy.
I would want Senator McCain in a war room plotting an attack on some enemy. I'd want him in a deliberative body giving me one perspective among many. I'd want him in a board room raising money for adoption agencies and other charitable causes. I think he is a piss poor executive. I think he is a dangerous choice for President.
Notice that I didn't say much about Obama. I think that in itself is a comment on his performance. Literally, nothing to write home about.