THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE OF 2008
On Friday, September 26th, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain had their first debate of the 2008 election year. Here are my quick thoughts on the debate.
I don't think the performances of the candidates changed anyone's mind. My guess is if you support McCain, you'll say he won. If you support Obama, you'll say he won. I didn't see any decisive victory for either one. McCain did better than I thought he would. Obama also did better than I thought he would. I speak only of style and delivery, not necessarily the substance.
I think Sen. McCain could have scored a knockout but failed to do so. All he had to do was speak about conservative ideals and values. He very easily could have refuted nearly all of Obama's talking points with clearcut conservatism. Of course, this is no surprise to me. How can one speak about conservatism, when one is not a conservative?
How many times did Sen. Obama say, "I agree with Sen. McCain." or "John is right." When the Republican and the Democrat running agree on so much....it's just a bad sign for Republicans especially when the Democrat is the most liberal member of the Senate.
I'm sitting here trying to think what to type and no words are coming to me. I am not excited about this election. Gov. Sarah Palin brought me some hope, but I fear that the McCain staff has her on the McCain talking points. If the McCain camp was smart, they'd stay away from her and let Palin be Palin. The reason so many of us were so excited about Gov. Palin joining the ticket was that she was not Sen. McCain. Let Gov. Palin be the politician we were excited about. We'll see how the V.P. debate goes on Thursday. Again, the best thing the McCain campaign can do is just stay away from Sarah Palin and allow her to be herself.
