I don’t think McCain recovers from his debate performance this evening.
First, the only zinger of the evening came when McCain was trying to lecture Obama on the need to speak softly. Obama rightly pointed out McCain is the guy singing “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” and other war mongering threats. Obama did it in such a way that it should get replayed on news shows until Sarah Palin Says something stupid and knocks it out of the news cycle.
Next, McCain left right after the debate ended, Obama stayed around for quite some time mingling with the audience. McCain is supposed to be the guy who thrives in a townhall format, but he couldn’t wait to get away from the unwashed masses. McCain’s quick exit will get noticed and talked about.
Finally, McCain wants to add more money to the bailout plan to buy bad mortgages and renogotiate them. The idea might have some merit but I think most conservatives hated the bailout and throwing more money on top of the 700 billion already approved seems like a non-starter to me.
All and all McCain managed to be arrogant, pandering and rude all in one evening. The real McCain is not a pretty sight and the country saw him in all his glory tonight.
Talking about Russia for 20 minutes was a disgrace…I couldn’t start watching until about halfway through, and it was foreign policy throughout that portion of the debate. The fact that NBC was hosting it…General Electric…I can see why they’d want to focus on dangerous countries abroad, in hopes that some General Electric bombs can be purchased at a stupid price.
I was tired and burnt out from work, but even so, I could have been interested in it had they actually discussed some topics that hadn’t already been beaten to death months ago.
I think they assume that people are just now starting to pay attention to the election, so they tend to go over the same stuff. Especially anything that has been poll tested.
I liked the debate because for the most part both sides are abondening the de-regulation fetish. McCain while he is happy to promise all sorts of stuff seems to have no idea how to pay for it. I wonder if the fact that McCain has never had to balance his personal finances doesn’t make it impossible for him to understand that someone has to pay for stuff.