If you were playing a drinking game where you did a shot every time John McCain said "my friends," then you're good and sauced right now.Sigh.
I hate these "town hall" formats. They are not debates, they are...well...they're stupid. And Tom Brokaw was an absolute joke as moderator. In fact, he was so bad that Obama wound up taking control of the format on a couple of occasions.
Ok...now that my whining is out of the way, here are my initial thoughts:
Obama won this debate, hands down. (And, for the record, CNN's "dial voters" - undecideds who rated what each candidate was saying in real time - were constantly giving Obama positive ratings as opposed to McCain's negative ratings.) On each and every issue - the economic crisis, energy, health care, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Russia - Obama looked presidential at each and every turn. He was intelligent, cool, and collected. McCain, on the other hand, was crotchety, incoherent (did he really bring up hair plugs?), and seemed really out of it.
In the end this debate will probably not alter the state of the race all that much. Whether it increases Obama's already comfortable lead in the polls we won't know until the end of the week. But one thing is for sure...McCain's poor performance won't increase his numbers one bit. In fact, they may just head down.
Other reactions from around the web...
Andrew Sullivan:
This was, I think, a mauling: a devastating and possibly electorally fatal debate for McCain. Even on Russia, he sounded a little out of it...All I can say is...this has not just been an Obama victory. It has been a wipe-out. It has been about as big a wipe-out as I can remember in a presidential debate. It reminds me of the 1992 Clinton-Perot-Bush debate. I don't really see how the McCain campaign survives this.John Aravosis:
[Obama] was smart, measured, and presidential. He presented details when details were called for, and cut down McCain politely and devastatingly when the situation demanded (I'm beyond impressed with Obama's ability to criticize McCain in a manner that doesn't come across as negative). McCain was cranky and bitchy. He was wooden and uncomfortable.Markos Moulitsas:
Anyone watching CNN on a hi-def TV could see the dial focus group of a bunch of Ohio undecided voters. And throughout the night, it often seemed that Obama would break the darn meter, his ratings going through the roof. McCain, on the other hand, was the king of the flatline. I swear, you could see the downticks every time McCain said "my friends" -- a tell to the audience that he was about to serve another heaping dish of B.S.(Photo: ABC News)
