Saturday, September 27, 2008

Thoughts on the First Debate

As I always do, I watched the Presidential Debate last night between John McCain and Barack Obama. This is the debate that almost wasn't, as McCain tried to use the financial discussions in Washington as an excuse to avoid the debate. However, a President can't pick and choose one crisis at a time, so I am glad that Obama held McCain's feet to the fire and that McCain did show up.

As to the debate itself, Moderator Jim Lehrer made repeated attempts to get the candidates to talk to one another. Eventually, Obama did start directly talking to McCain, but McCain refused to look at him, instead keeping his eyes staring out at the audience. My dad raised me to know that it is rude to not look a man in the eye when he is talking to you. This did not come across well for McCain. Still, while I disagree on most points with McCain, he did make his case better than I thought he would.

Being as objective as I can, I still give Obama the win on this debate, but it was not a knock out. Next up...Joe Biden versus Sarah Palin. Maybe she will do like she did with Katie Couric, tell Biden she'll have to get the answers and "bring 'em to ya!".