VP Debate Reactions: Part 1

I think that Sarah Palin tied or even won the first half of the debate. However, in the second part of the debate, she seemed to lose steam and fall back to all familiar talking points. This was probably the combined result of the topic being foreign to her (pardon the pun), and the fact that you can only wind a tape cassette so tight with new information before it eventually doesn’t play anymore. Overall, Palin started out strong and faded, where Biden improved as the debate went along.

Did Palin beat expectations? Yes, but that was to be expected considering how low expectations were. Did Biden meet expectations and not blow it? Yes, Biden did without a doubt. Therefore, I think both candidates did as well as could be individually expected, and therefore the dynamics of this race won’t change much at all. And who wins in that scenario? The ticket with the big lead, of course, and right now that ticket is Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Kevin Van Dyke, Managing Editor

I watched the debate with three friends, with a variety of political opinions represented. I think the debate, similar to the first McCain/Obama debate, was evenly matched. Although Palin looked nervous initially, she seemed to find her footing and was able to answer the questions she was knowledgeable on and avoided those that she didn’t know how to answer. Biden’s frequent smiling looked, as was predicted, mildly condescending. However, he too found his footing, and in my opinion, thoroughly dominated the section on foreign policy. Palin was able to hold her own on energy issues, but I found her attempts at leveraging her “experience” as business owner, mayor, oil regulator, and governor in many areas to be a stretch at best. I thought Palin’s avoidance in discussing Pakistan and Afghanistan, in favor of Iraq and Israel, to be a fairly fatal flaw. I thought they both did an excellent job of looking at the camera and making their case for their potential bosses, rather than focusing solely on themselves.

Yerik Kaslow, Staff Writer

Well, I don’t think anyone “won” Thursday’s debate. McCain may pick up a few points in the polls from Palin’s showing, but both candidates showed up. I personally thought the Governess was a bit over the top with the winking and “gosh darn it” attitude and I would’ve liked it more had she injected some substance into the debate rather than coming back to how totally awesome Johnny Mac is.

The night’s biggest selling point? Biden’s response to the Governess’ “being a mom is so tough!” shtick. Biden is always quick with a quip, but his genuine response about being a single father after the death of his first wife, on a national stage, with millions of people watching, sold it for me. While Ms. Palin acted like the beauty queen turned politician that she is, Mr. Biden came off as a man who’s just trying to do the right thing for his country.

Christopher Swyers, Staff Writer

9/26 Presidential Debate Reactions: Part 2

Below are more debate reactions from Demockracy.com writers:

I only saw the latter half of the debate, but I honestly wasn’t impressed with either candidate. Both McCain and Obama seemed to be saying the exact same thing, but with different words. Whenever one of them tried to call the other out on something, the other always responded “that’s not what I said/meant.” Neither man showed me anything that I didn’t already know or think. Obama was the calm, young leader who isn’t all that comfortable speaking extemporaneously, while McCain was the old, agitated guy screaming at anyone who dares disagree with his elder. Yeah, I only saw part of it, but that part was enough. They both need to bring something else to the table for the next debate. Show me more!

Brad Muller, Staff Writer

I watched the debate with five friends, four of whom are Republicans and three of whom are in the tank for McCain. Since I was live blogging, I couldn’t really look at the TV at all. I had to keep watching the laptop monitor and the keyboard. I felt that in the first segment about Wall Street, McCain was scoring far more points on the offensive, and Obama was a little back on his heels. It was really frustrating because Obama had all sorts of home-field advantage on that subject.

Some of the answers that I wish Obama had given:

1) Senator, with a Democratic majority in congress, you’re not going to actually *do* anything on domestic policy, other than waste four years of the American public’s time, threatening vetoes. So let’s get that straight right now: you’re not going to slash or reform or reinvent one single solitary thing.

2) Senator, we’ve been hearing from your campaign for the better part of a year now that it would be a bad idea to elect someone who’s reckless. What could possibly be more reckless than to quit your own campaign out of the blue to race to Washington and sabotage a fragile compromise on this bailout legislation?

Once the debate was over, I realized that one can’t empathize with an undecided voter if you, yourself, aren’t undecided, and these sorts of answers would have made ME much happier than it would have made THEM. Obama won with undecided voters, he won with women, and he won with people who were able to watch and really take-in the body language.

In my focus group of five, the vote was five to zero in favor of Obama.

Dave O’Gorman, Staff Writer

9/26 Presidential Debate Reactions: Part 1

Below are a collection of debate reactions from Demockracy.com writers and editors from the night of the debate:

Pre-debate thoughts:

I don’t know how much debate prep the McCain camp has been doing, and I’m hoping that Senator McCain’s attempts to derail this debate reflect that. As much as I would love an oratorical showdown, I’m still really hoping to see Senator Obama sweep the floor with Senator McCain.

Melissa Crawley, Staff Writer

Obama is ahead going in, so he has to play it somewhat cautious. However, he can’t be too cautious, as that got him into a lot of trouble against Hillary Clinton in the primaries. This is the fine line that he must walk tonight. Some people are saying that he must be pithy, I disagree. I think he needs to be himself and really explain things to the American people. In a time of crisis, Americans want a President who can speak in full sentences. In addition, the format of this debate allows for more lengthy answers. The format is an important aspect of this debate that many pundits are ignoring.

Kevin Van Dyke, Editor

Post-Debate Thoughts

I particularly like McCain’s “League of Democracies”…Woodrow Wilson had this idea back in the 20s…oh, right.

Bradley, Editor

McCain seemed angry. He reminded me of the old man that lived down the street from me growing up who used to yell at us as kids whenever we walked through his lawn! During the whole debate he constantly looked down and at the audience, rather than at the television cameras. In addition, rarely did he even acknowledge Obama’s presence. It seemed as if he was in his own world. Obama, on the other hand, was generally very collegial. In fact, he may have been too friendly—constantly saying “John’s right.”

Overall, McCain may have won on debating points, but all of that is irrelevant outside of college debate halls. It’s all about perception and what undecided voters thought. CNN, CBS, and Fox all show Obama won big with the only voters that matter—undecided voters. Why did Obama win with this group? For the first part of the debate, one reason might be that he talked about the middle class and how his tax cuts would benefit 95% of Americans, while McCain focused squarely on abstract issues like earmarks. In addition, Obama more than held his own during the foreign policy section of the debate. A lot of Americans, especially older Americans, don’t like the Republicans or McCain, but are still uncomfortable voting for Obama for whatever reason. Obama seemed to pass a certain threshold with many of these undecided voters tonight. The question is whether he can keep them through November.

Kevin Van Dyke, Editor

As the two candidates took the stage for the first debate on Friday evening, I was very confident Obama supporter. An hour and a half later, I wasn’t nearly so sure. For the first half-hour of this debate, it was clear that Senator McCain was on the offensive, and that’s really inexcusable, given the events of the last two weeks. McCain did very well on the subject of spending and the bailout and got away with identifying himself as someone who cuts spending, which really, really, really shouldn’t have happened.

On the other hand, a case could be made that Obama didn’t have to perform nearly as well as McCain did. McCain was playing from behind. Clearly this was Obama’s debate to lose, and the good news is that he didn’t lose. The sound bites on the local news in Florida were markedly better for Obama. For example, an instant poll conducted on CBS found that only 7% of the undecided voters surveyed had a less favorable opinion of the Obama compared to 46% who had a more favorable opinion.

So, am I wrong to think that Obama should have done more? It always bothers me when Democrats aren’t as aggressive as I’d like them to be in these types of events. However, to be honest, that wasn’t Obama’s job tonight. It was McCain who had to score the big knockout. While McCain’s stock did rise in some of the prediction markets, I don’t think he accomplished enough to change the dynamic of this election. Indeed, over on Fox News, Scott Rasmussen predicted that McCain would be two-to-three points down when the three-day rolling average had fully reflected this contest. And you know what that means? That means I get to call it a night.

Dave O’Gorman, Staff Writer

Do you have any thoughts or reactions about the first presidential debate? If so, comment below or share them with us here, and we may publish them!