• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

PoliGAF Thread of First Debate Election 2008 - GAF doesn't know shit

Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Ford Prefect

GAAAAAAAAY
giga said:
obama, by this much

080926-2253360031-1280x720.jpg
Click to expand...
McCain will never stop with that weird gesture, will he? :lol

He's going to die with his hands like that.
 
D

Door2Dawn

Banned
My mom was pretty mad at the fact that McCain wouldn't make eye contact at Obama. She was screaming 'why won't he look at him!?' I can see alot of black people getting upset about this.
 
T

Tamanon

Banned
Trakdown said:
I gotta say, Obama's counter on McCain's "bracelet" story was great. Nobody can say Obama didn't hold his own in this debate.
Click to expand...

Yeah I loved how he defused that crap about "dying in vain" with "no soldier ever dies in vain in service to the commander-in-chief"
 
W

woxel1

Member
Beavertown said:
Did anyone catch what McCain was saying about the Koreans being 3 inches taller than some other ethnic group or their north or south counterparts?

What the hell was that all about? :lol
Click to expand...
My dad just said to me, "Could you imagine if you got an e-mail from John saying, 'I'll teach you how to add three inches'?"
 
T

tak

Member
Did anyone else notice halfway through the debate it look like McCain was looking off into the distance really hard? I wonder what that was about. Maybe someone was causing some trouble in the crowd.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
vitaflo said:
Not sure how it was shown on any other networks, but there was one point in particular in the debate, on NBC, where they were having an exchange and it was split screen. Obama was looking at McCain and talking to him and McCain was talking back to Obama but looking the other way while doing so. It was VERY odd.

Perhaps because the debate was fairly uneventful and both guys did a good job, that part really stuck out at me.
Click to expand...
I wonder if that's going to be this year's equivalent of Gore sighing at Bush; the mannerism that the media narrative latches onto. It seems to be getting a mention almost everywhere right now.

RE: the snap McCain ad: First Read pointed out that it starts with McCain saying he approves the message, but it went online while he was still on stage. He couldn't have approved it. :lol
 
T

Trakdown

Member
Tamanon said:
Yeah I loved how he defused that crap about "dying in vain" with "no soldier ever dies in vain in service to the commander-in-chief"
Click to expand...

You know you're doing well when you can make McCain look like the lesser soldier.
 
RubxQub

RubxQub

φίλω ἐξεχέγλουτον καί ψευδολόγον οὖκ εἰπόν
Kintaco said:
Something tells me on their next debate he will make eye contact. :lol
Click to expand...
That will be his downfall. I think McCain didn't make eye contact so he could keep his cool. If he was looking at Obama as Obama was saying stuff like "YOU WERE WRONG", McCain would pop.

He is definitely going to breakdown if more eye contact is required.
 
H

heliosRAzi

Banned
RubxQub said:
That will be his downfall. I think McCain didn't make eye contact so he could keep his cool. If he was looking at Obama as Obama was saying stuff like "YOU WERE WRONG", McCain would pop.

He is definitely going to breakdown if more eye contact is required.
Click to expand...

If McCain does meltdown, will he get banned or possibly permabanned?
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
Cnn really needs to put part 2 up.. it was just getting good.
 
W

WinFonda

Member
RubxQub said:
That will be his downfall. I think McCain didn't make eye contact so he could keep his cool. If he was looking at Obama as Obama was saying stuff like "YOU WERE WRONG", McCain would pop.

He is definitely going to breakdown if more eye contact is required.
Click to expand...
Agreed. He does it to keep his temper in check. Even though I thought Obama wasn't nearly as assertive as he could have been on some points, McCain was still getting very hot under the collar tonight.
 
RubxQub

RubxQub

φίλω ἐξεχέγλουτον καί ψευδολόγον οὖκ εἰπόν
heliosRAzi said:
If McCain does meltdown, will he get banned or possibly permabanned?
Click to expand...
He'll probably just get an EmbarraTag (TM) that links to his meltdown and says something to the effect of "EYE CONTACT?! RARRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Much humiliation would follow.

Thunder Monkey said:
Awesome dude.:lol

I get smartass responses from everyone but our resident smart ass.
Click to expand...
Damnit...misread your initial question :/
 
D

Diablos

Member
Door2Dawn said:
John McCain may be a lot of things,but he is not a racist.
Click to expand...
John McCain said:
I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.
Click to expand...
Granted, it's understandable how he could grow to hate a certain group of people after what they put him through (not saying it makes his comments acceptable), but McCain being a racist is most certainly debatable.
 
C

Cloudy

Banned
If Palin can't even get on news shows to do the usual VP spin after a debate, I don't know what to think...

They are gonna find a way to have her not face Biden :lol
 
S

SpeedingUptoStop

will totally Facebook friend you! *giggle* *LOL*
Final thoughts (my friends are asleep atm, so i just made up a Facebook note):

Initially, it would seem like a draw. Mccain hammered the sound bites and Obama stuck to the facts. But, when the CBS, ABC, CNN, & MSNBC all showed a strong lead for Obama among independents (and even a Fox news Poll showed a quality lead, before the memory was erased by a laughable text poll with an 82% win for mcCain), you had to look closer.


McCain (in the true spirit of how his campaign has been run over the past two months) took quite a few opportunities to shoot himself in the foot.

He never looked at Obama. A big part of the debates, ever since the first televised one in the Kennedy-era, is appearance. Body language. Tone. McCain failed on these factors. Not looking at Obama whatsoever, even when being directly addressed,can tell you a lot about what he's thinking - hate. Fear. indifference. a pure lack of confidence. Not being able to look a person in the eye says quite a bit, none of which are positive.

Mccain came out like a condescending jackass. As if it weren't enough to interrupt Obama, he even interrupted moderator, Jim Lehrer, often to talk about subjects not related to the question. He toted his usual talking points, which was expected, but what brought a rise out of me was when he brought out a new one; " [atleast i'm not] Mr. Congeniality of the Senate". That's a pretty smart thing to say from the man trying to champion his bipartisan politics. Perhaps "Difficult" is more of a MAVERICK'S way of going about being bipartisan, but I think when you're trying to get two different ideologies to agree on something (like Republicans and Democrats), you might do well by having your representative be, you know, likable.

This, unfortunately is what McCain has been trying to disapprove since the Republican (Hater's) Convention. He tried to bully his way through the debate tonight. I'll give him credit for discussing part of his ideas (however, that's what you're supposed to do at these things), he really slipped up big time by trying to slime Obama. When you're addressing a stadium full of Republicans, shouting out bullshit facts will slide by quite easy - but when you're addressing your opponent face to face, your lies have a harder time passing than the 700b Bailout Bill.

This is where Obama excelled best. McCain spouted utter lies about Obama's policies, and while he didn't squash all of them, when he did step in, he stepped correct. McCain spent a majority of time talking about how wrong Obama was on issues, rather than talking about himself and what he'd do. Obama took the right opportunities and pinpointed the lies in McCain's rhetoric, often replying "that's a lie [here's the real story]". McCain basically let Obama have free air time to disapprove McCain's false claims and thusly talk about why he's the right man for the job. McCain wasted precious time in an election that seems to be slipping away from him with each new poll number - Obama wasted none.


It wasn't all good for Obama though. He did let McCain step on him one too many times, even letting his policy on talking with hostile countries get trampled over by a rampaging McCain's smart ass jokes. This has always been my problem with Obama though - not enough aggression. I understand he wants to be above bickering and belittling his opponent (and the polls seem to show a swing in his favor as he continues to hold his head above murky political waters), but when he's out right insulting you, you gotta hammer back. Obama has a grasp on what's right for America and McCain has a grasp on how to sell that idea (although it's starting to crumble). America likes aggressive, shoot first people. This is why this Maverick bull shit is even being taken seriously. I just want to see Obama shoot first more often. Hit McCain with the jab, instead of doing a rope a dope.


But every one has their flaws. Unfortunately for McCain, he seems to be experiencing a Fantasia-effect. the more he tries to falsely purport obama's stance on the issues (particularly his stance on Taxes, where we, the average American, would actually be losing money with McCain's tax cuts, in comparison to Obama's), the more he trips on his own coattails. McCain's blatantly political exploitations are already beginning to come back into his face, and we still have more than a month left. The situation will not get better if he continues to pull wacky, substance-less stunts, like his non-existent suspension of the campaign and the incomprehensible torpedoing of the preferable bailout plan.

In my eyes, Obama came out with a close win tonight - he kept his composure through out and remained generally, I dunno, congenial. Reminded me a bit of the past two elections, where a confident speaking, "likeable" guy slid right past the boring, rigid opponent and into the white house. Fortunately, for America, this time, it's not all a facade.
Click to expand...
 
R

Rhindle

Member
I think this guy nails the debate analysis:

Analysis: Obama passes McCain's test

By Peter S. Canellos, Boston Globe Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- John McCain last night tried hard to make the first presidential debate a test of Barack Obama's fitness for office. McCain succeeded in his framing of the test -- but Obama passed it.

....

"It's well known that I have not been elected Miss Congeniality in the United States Senate, nor with the administration," [McCain] shot back, in one of his strongest responses of the night. "I have opposed the president on spending, on climate change, on torture of prisoners, on Guantanamo Bay, on the way the Iraq war was conducted. I have a long record, and the American people know me well."

They do. They know Obama less well. But last night, they probably came away feeling they knew him a little better -- and liked what they saw.

Both candidates came off well. But Obama had more to gain, and he did.
Click to expand...
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/analysis_obama_4.html

I'm coming to the realization that Obama wins simply from the opportunity for people to spend time with him and get comfortable with him. His biggest obstacle is that he's too different, too much of an unknown for a lot of folks. Just the fact of being able to spend 90 minutes talking to people makes it a win for him.
 
V

vitaflo

Member
SpeedingUptoStop said:
:lol :lol :lol


the ending is so great. "Is he ready to lead?" uhhhhh, if he and mccain supposedly agree quite a bit, then what's the difference? :lol
Click to expand...

Republicans haven't heard of the transitive property, apparently.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Door2Dawn said:
John McCain may be a lot of things,but he is not a racist.
Click to expand...
That may be true, but it's the impression. Anecdote: I showed my wife the pics a few pages back where McCain was never looking at Obama, even when they shook hands. The first thing she says is, "Is McCain racist? Why won't he look at him?"
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Rhindle said:
I think this guy nails the debate analysis:

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/analysis_obama_4.html

I'm coming to the realization that Obama wins simply from the opportunity for people to spend time with him and get comfortable with him. His biggest obstacle is that he's too different, too much of an unknown for a lot of folks. Just the fact of being able to spend 90 minutes talking to people makes it a win for him.
Click to expand...

McCain tried repeatedly to portray Obama as a neophyte, prefacing many answers with variants of the statement, "What Sen. Obama doesn't seem to understand," and later insisting that Obama "showed a little bit of naivete."

But Obama didn't seem either uncomprehending or naive, and McCain seemed so frustrated at times that he almost lost his cool.

After Obama followed a McCain jab about Obama's failure to hold a hearing of his Senate subcommittee with a return punch that McCain had once claimed the United States could "muddle through" in Afghanistan, the Arizona senator clenched his teeth, flared his eyes, and seemed on the verge of losing composure.
Click to expand...
There it is. Everyone seems to be picking up on it.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
SpeedingUptoStop said:
:lol :lol :lol


the ending is so great. "Is he ready to lead?" uhhhhh, if he and mccain supposedly agree quite a bit, then what's the difference? :lol

*Obama grimace* "NO":lol
Click to expand...
it doesn't actually make any sense whatsoever. not only does him agreeing with mccain at times mean that any derived flaws would go for both, but those clips showed that he is willing to acknowledge an opponent's strengths, an admirable and necessary trait for a leader.

am i alone in this: i would like to watch the debate all the way through with some friends and have a game. every time mccain uses a logical fallacy, whether an appeal to emotion, straw man, false analogy, or whatever else he commonly used, we would down a beer. alcohol poisoning by the end, guaranteed.
 
A

artredis1980

Banned
McCain: If people were bored, it means we won

One observation on the debate from a number of people who aren't paid to watch these things: They changed the channel at some point. Whoever did better -- McCain in my inside-the-bubble take -- did so on points, and the campaign will move quickly back to the reality of an economic crisis.

Some creative spin on the mild snooziness of the affair:

"If people are bored, that plays to our benefit," said RNC spokesman Alex Conant, who explained that Obama fans -- "expecting to hear one of his rally speeches" -- would feel let down by his discursions into policy.

The official McCain spin was more along the lines of McCain having kept the debate on his own turf, and demonstrated a greater command.
Click to expand...


http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Snoozy__good_for_McCain.html
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Jtwo said:
That strikes me as a very strange reaction.
Click to expand...
Seems pretty reasonable to me. And she was really asking, not accusing. Why not look this man in the eye? Or even look at him at all? It's a fair question.
 
P

PantherLotus

Professional Schmuck
I was implying not that he was racist, but afraid of being caught "looking up" at the taller candidate. Millions of Americans taller than 5'-6" should be insulted. Why would you assume that I meant something else?
 
N

NewLib

Banned
thefit said:
He refuses to stop using the term gook.
Click to expand...

My grandfather would never stop talk about the Germans he fought unless he used the word Kraut. He didnt have anything against Germans (My family is actually mostly German), but if you went through the three years of hell he went through, you would also rationalize.

There is a difference.
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
so debate one under the table, not a bad result... and Obama's good subjects coming up.

And a little thing called the vice presidential debates.

I don't know about you guys, but my HOPIUM levels are off the charts.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Locked
Trump holds town hall that's totally not debate prep you guys
2 3
149
22K
Mahonay replied
  • Locked
Politico: Democrats dread Hillary's book tour
2 3 4
187
16K
ModBot replied
  • Locked
The Democratic National Committee Chair Debate |OT| - Dem One: A Politics Story
2
79
8K
kirblar replied
  • Locked
RNC suspending GOP Feb '16 debate with NBC (Because lol CNBC)
2 3 4 5
212
19K
OuterLimits replied
  • Locked
GAF Elects: Help Elect a Democratic Senate
2 3
101
12K
jiggle replied
Top Bottom