Spending the night with Obama / McCain

I didn't especially care about whether I listened to or watched the debate tonight because really for those that are already decided (as I am to vote for Obama)I nothing that their candidate was going to say was going to change their mind about how they're going to vote. I liked what I know about Obama and think he'd make a good president (and thought that about Hillary also) so I don't need any more convincing to vote for him, but I'd vote for almost any person that ran on the Democatic ticket because this country needs major changes and I don't think that having a Republican president in office for another four years is going to be that road for those changes. I don't think Obama or any other Democratic candidate will be able to initiate any change for some time especially in light of what's happening on Wall Street, but the road to that change is there with the Democrats that will not be possible with McCain as president (and doubly true if Palin ends up having to step in, with her redneck, religious right wing agenda).

I listened to the first hour of the debate on NPR and after Kate and I got home I watched the post game commentary on CNN and MSMBC. As I was listening I thought that both Obama and McCain weren't saying anything new and I definitely thought that Obama was "playing" way too nice in "attacking" McCain. I thought Chris Matthews on Hardball (on MSNBC) had really good analysis on how the debate went, specifically on how McCain wouldn't directly ever look at Obama and how Obama didn't come out all full throttle against how McCain has aligned himself with Bush's policies. When Obama stated to McCain that he (McCain) voted 90% of the time in line with Bush, McCain answered that the record shows that he has differed many times with Bush and that he was a maverick (groan) and Obama just let it go at that. Eugene Robertson, a commentator on the Hardball show, suggested that McCain's not looking at Obama was his way of personalizing the presidential race by way of viewing Obama as the enemy. Chris Matthews also brought up the good example of how Eisenhower ended the Korean War in 1953 not because the U.S. had won, but because it was the right thing to do and I think if Obama had broad sided McCain with an illustration as weighted as that, he'd have won the night.

So of course the debates are most important to those that are undecided on who to vote for and I'd say that McCain won this round as Obama didn't follow through with his initial jabs towards McCain's policies and thus McCain looked stronger (but I think this is only true if the listener or viewer hadn't heard both candidates talk before and or didn't know much about either candidate). Both candidates also weren't specific on what they would do about the financial crisis the country is in or how their planned policies would be affected by this finacial crisis (which certainly is going to superceede just about everything else), but that's because as long as I can remember politians are so worried about upsetting any of the voter base so they just talk in circles or generalizations. As Matthews said on Hardball, McCain was more passionate then Obama when speaking about his agenda and sadly a number of people do equate emotional responses as a sign of strength (and I don't think that being visibly passionate about something is bad, just that because one doesn't always emote doesn't mean that they aren't passionate about what their position is).

Next Thursday Biden should walk all over Palin in their debate, although after her laughable interview with Katie Couric this week I'm sure she's going to be getting a lot of coaching from her camp as to how to better answer the tough questions. November 4th is going to be very interesting indeed and it's too bad that that first Tuesday in November doesn't fall on the 5th (Guy Fawkes Day). Will we as a country be playing David Bowie's Changes or Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same?