Old theories about medicine used to think that health and personalities had to do with the four humors. Choleric best describes McCain’s performance. His worst moment, in my opinion, is when he used air quotes when referring to the “health of the mother” in decisions about abortion — as if it was a make-believe issue. The constant return to “Joe the Plumber” was comical and will get him roasted on the comedy shows. Obama was steady – certainly not exciting, but cool and competent.
Right now, on CNN, the pundits appear to be trying to keep a narrative that McCain “came back” in this debate. I could be wrong, but I suspect those “snap polls” will show a pro-Obama slant, and the commenters will have to back pedal. In any event, they sell more air time if this race stays close. So, if they have a bias, that’s it.
Update
Oh yeah, and John McCain thinks that the fabric of American democracy is so feeble that ACORN is going to undermine it.
And, now CNN is interviewing their panel – basically they think that Obama won, Joe the Plumber was overdone, and CNN’s pundits are full of crap.
Update 2 The snap polls are out and they show a perception that Obama won the debate by a large margin. What’s amusing to watch is that the pundits who were initially talking about how McCain had his best performance yet and Obama came out flat are now talking about how McCain’s crankiness didn’t serve him well and Obama was flat, but apparently in a good way. Before this quick polling, the pundit narrative would’ve taken hold. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see those go away in the next election since the polling seems to take the narrative away from the commentariat.
Update 3 Similar post about snap polls by Kos. He notes a comment by John King over at CNN about how he doesn’t like the polls. He didn’t say as much, but it diminishes his power and that of other opinion makers. Here’s the dirty little secret: opinion is easy and cheap. Nowadays, any two bit hack with an Internet connection and the minimal mental dexterity necessary to operate a blog can hold forth on the issues of the day. It’s why opinion columns in newspapers are becoming ever less important and why, if news organizations want to survive, they’ll have to invest more in the business of uncovering and reporting concrete facts.
I agree that Obama won the debate. I liked the way he withstood McCain’s assaults- very cool and calm indeed.
However, the more I listened to his plan, it all came down to more federal involvement, and more federal spending. Then again, this was also true about McCain, where he seemed to favor a lot more spending and a little less federal action. It seemed like shaded differences rather substantial and fundamental changes.
So, I found Obama’s conclusion ironic, instructing that a failure to act differently will bring us all the more towards economic disaster. Well, it’s the spending and borrowing and inflating of the money supply that has brought us here. I fail to see how either of the two bring us genuine, fundamental change. I agree that we need it- desperately, but I find it entirely wanting.
I’m going to venture a bold prediction. Mike, you will be disappointed on election day. I know I’m going out on a limb.
Whereas, with a little bit of luck, it will take me a solid year to become disappointed.
My favorite statement was Obama’s rebuttal about paling around with Ayers. Obama exclaimed that he was 8 when Ayers was participating in the whole thing.
Also, I’m working on McCain mentioning my name in his next interview…that Joe Plumber guy is getting blown up!!
The best off-the-cuff (paraphrased) comment was by Chris Mathews commenting on post-debate polling indicating Obama won : McCain sounded like a typical Republican and Obama sounded like a typical Democrat and people don’t want Republican now’
Simple and profound..
Doug –
I think you will be disappointed within a quarter – want to set the over/under at six months?
I can’t play, though – I saved time by being disappointed as soon as the conventions were over.
Three hundred million people – and these are the top two picks?
What say we skip disappointment and move right on to despair…
Aye, I was disappointed before the conclusion of the conventions. I know Barr isn’t going to win, so that isn’t the disappointment. I know that my best political shot was gridlock- not that I’m cheering for McCain, as I find him the worst of the three.
My biggest disappointments rarely come on election day. They come when a Congressional leader makes an announcement, or the President makes an announcement, about a new law they are passing. With all the spending Obama spoke of, and with a Democratic Congress to rubber stamp it all, I know that I won’t have to wait longer than the next 100 days.
I’ve been working on a new bumper sticker, along the lines of those great ‘Bush’s Last Day’ stickers: “11.06.12 Do-Over Day”.
I was shocked by how aggrieved McCain was. It was unseemly how he took the discussion about threats being shouted at his rallies off on a tangent where somehow he was the biggest victim in the history of presidential politics and John Lewis had practically accused him of murder. “Old, aggrieved victim” is not what the country is looking for right now. But he just went on and on about it. I wanted Obama to say, “John, we’ve acknowledged that you are hurt, but we’re going to go ahead and move along with the business of this election, ok? People at your rallies are saying threatening things about me, but I don’t have time to sit and cry about it because there’s too much important work to be done.”
And of course, we learned from McCain that if you criticize the parts of the mob that are yelling threats, you’re really specifically criticizing WWII vets wearing hats. It just works that way.
Yeah, that WWII vets with hats tangent was just bizarre.
Joe the Plumber indeed….American pundits are so gullible….and the Repub operatives are so lame.
But Obama said that McCain’s running mate was saying that he is BFF with terrorists. That’s pretty much the equivalent of spitting in a veteran’s face of course. Duh.
Joe Six Pack=Joe the Plumber=Joe the Republican’t Plant/Operative
After Watergate, people stopped naming their sons Richard. I have high hopes that the same will happen with the name Joe.
On a different note, I tried an experiment this year – I listened to the debates on radio, rather than watching on TV. This meant that I missed the straight faces, sulks, hugs, etc. (though I swear you could hear the Palin winks) which meant that I took away a better impression of all candidates involved, I think, than those who watched television. McCain started well, and I liked his complaint that Obama does less repudiation – but I loved Obama point out that he was eight years old during the Weatherman mess.
Why isn’t the Obama campaign using the Keating Five scandal?
Joe the Plumber’s attitude is so 2004.
When you’re in the lead, you don’t have to-that’s why!
If Obama was so great and McCain so bad, why are the polls showing Obama’s lead shrinking?
To give Republicans hope and cause jittery Democrats to wring their hands and gnash their teeth.
For my part, I figure a few days of playing McCain talking about a pregnant woman’s “health” in airquotes on a loop should keep McCain in the electoral cellar.
On the other hand, it’s not entirely clear that Obama’s lead is shrinking.
538.com’s electoral poll averaging currently has Obama at 349.2 electoral votes to McCain’s 188.8.