Debates

My apologies again for not writing for a while. I've been somewhat swamped with schoolwork, and not feeling well for some of the time. I want to briefly comment on the first debate before I do a longer post on the economic situation. I think if I were scoring the debate on points, John McCain won. Not a knockout punch, but I think he made his points marginally more convincingly, and was able to respond to more of what Obama said than Obama was able to respond to what he said. (Of course, a lot of his responses were dishonest, but most people watching the debate don't know that.) Obama had a decent performance, but I think there were a lot of missed opportunities where he could have hit back hard and didn't. Why then, do the polls show overwhelmingly that voters think Obama won? Obama came accross looking presidential, and McCain came across looking like a jerk. Obama was respectful, he addressed McCain directly, he looked him in the eye. McCain's points were laced with insults ("Senator Obama doesn't understand..."). He refused to address him directly at any point during the debate. He wouldn't even acknowledge when the two of them agreed. The McCain campaign has released and ad splicing together all the different times Obama said "I agree with John" during the debate, as if it was an endorsement. For most people watching the debate, Obama wasn't endorsing McCain, he was reaching out and trying to find common ground. How can McCain claim to the guy who can reach across the aisle and find common ground with the Democrats, when he can't even be respectful to his opponent in the race? So that's why Obama benefitted the most from this debate even though on points, McCain probably won.