Synth_floyd said:
Also, what was with Jim Lehrer trying to goad the two into a fight? It came off as really tacky.
Lehrer did great, he just wanted the two to talk to each other rather than continue to speechify if they weren't in the same room.
The Chosen One said:
- It was funny listening to them answer the "what programs would you postpone or cut?" question. Obama answered the question by mentioning all the programs he was going to add to the budget.... :lol
Well he discussed Iraq and Medicare which are material, but I liked this answer because a complete answer has to say what's not on the table too. It's really just a question of priorities, so I felt like his answer was "the stuff that's not this"
TCO said:
- I also think both dropped the ball on the economy. McCain didn't say much of anything and Obama didn't really connect with the everyday hardships out there as much as he could have.
I;d actually agree in the sense that neither fully explained the reason people are flipping out so much. Maybe a missed opportunity, or maybe they're just afraid that would tip things into a bigger deathspiral.
Shaheed79 said:
A lot of you seem to inauspiciously believe that we still live in a pure democracy. I'm not saying do not vote because it's what little power we feel we still have but also try to be a little more aware of the powerful interests who can control and undoubtedly do influence both sides of the aisle. Totalitarian monarchs have simply been replaced with CEO's and the heads of exclusive "secret societies". Maybe this isn't the topic to bring this up but it breaks my heart to see so many people on gaf settling on the bottom of Plato's Cave and accepting everything they see as reality.
Okay, honestly I do think there's a valid point buried in there somewhere but you need to do a better job of getting it across. This was just a terrible post for like 6 or 7 different reasons.
Odrion said:
i wonder if he[JayDub] ever gets angry every time the game gives him a free potion :b
HA
Okay, so...
Having watched the debate away from GAF, I had gotten the impression that Obama did will, just by watching the feedback to his responses rise slowly over the night. My own impression was that he did will and that it was a good night for him not only because he got to talk about the economy, but because he demonstrated significant knowledge about foreign policy issues. I loved that he got to explain to McCain the difference between stated rates and effective rates for corporate taxes. I think the biggest dropped opportunities were 1) failing to beat up McCain when he talked about his Boeing investigations. Huge opportunity, but extremely obscure so it doesn't surprise me if he wasn't prepared for it. 2) failing to explain why the surge did not "work" and 3) I don't get why everyone has suddenly given up discussing Georgia's behavior in the Otessia fiasco. Probably they're blustering and we don't want to hurt their feelings over the pipeline I guess.
However, even though I though Obama did "well" I was genuinely shocked by the margins he was getting in the post debate polls. My theory is that we're seeing a mitigation of the "scary muslim" or "too inexperienced" or "just a good speaker" factor. A lot of people still probably just haven't gotten the chance to see him going deep into policy and particularly foreign policy, so just to seem him have a significant substantive grasp and go toe-to-toe with McCain caused a surprisingly good reaction.
That said, if polls trend upwards any further, we're seriously talking about 8 Senate pickups, particularly now that Franken and Merkley are closing. And we won't be talking about VA and CO late into the night on election night; NC and IN are going to be the ones that keep us up. If we bother to stay up.
