Obama’s Debate
September 27th, 2008
Barack calling McCain out on Iraq was the most memorable moment of the night. It’s possible that will be what sticks with voters. More please! I thought he did ok in terms of composure and command of the facts and all that. But more saber-rattling in defense of Georgia? Georgia? I’m also excited that, like Reagan, he’s for missile defense, because Star Wars was one of my favorite movies as a kid. Jesus Christ. I know Samantha Power wouldn’t have told Obama to say this stuff.
It is curious to me that Obie feels the need to sprinkle in these cynical panders about issues that I don’t think are at the top of anyone’s Christmas list. It’s less important than McCain pretending he hasn’t been for deregulation since Moses parted the Red Sea (or at least Keating 5), but it might be just as far from the truth. I don’t really know.
Plus, when Jim Lehrer gives you multiple opportunities to explain the tough decisions you are willing to make, in light of the astronomically expensive bailout we’re lurching towards, that is the time to channel FDR or JFK even, and say something meaningful. Best chance of the night for either one to step up, and neither did. No, budget freezes don’t count. Also, they should really let Walter Cronkite Lehrer moderate all the debates. Or elect him president, as TPM suggested.
Let me just conclude by saying that I’m disappointed with Obama only because I expect a lot from him. He’s my favorite presidential candidate of my lifetime, and I liked Kerry and Gore. And I’m not part of the in crowd, so I don’t have anything but an abstract idea of the pressures of a national campaign and the realities of what is politically feasible and what is not. But after watching last night’s debate I’m more inclined to agree with Mr. Penn than I would like.
Entry Filed under: Politics, Uncategorized
2 Comments Add your own
1. Barry Bussewitz | September 28th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
F2P’s debate analysis did two things I liked — it highlighted one of Obama’s best parts of the night, and also the most disappointing. Unless the pubic response as it develops by week’s end is that McCain won, I think we can safely say Obama comes out significantly ahead in outcome with America.
As a supporter, I definitely see him improving in the capacities we need in a President (and he already had a good start, both in absolute terms and also compared to the other Dems and Repubs). It was painful not to see him do better on Lehrer’s prompts to call for something more from the rest of us than to hope for the best on accomplishing all his economic-based goals.
He should ask for collective personal responsibility from all of us, then rip the shit out of W for telling us to go shopping. Not only would it be the right thing to do, wouldn’t it have a strong, positive political impact??
Of course if he needs to save this for the 2nd or 3rd debate and it works, I’ll bow to his superior judgement. The same with not addressing McCain more directly, as Lehrer also prompted. Of course he is yoked to the need to come off as personally respectful of a man who seems increasingly out of it, and whose candidacy seems increasingly offensive to what our country needs in leadership.
And he DID look to John McCain repeatedly throughout the debate. That guy never once looked at Barack Obama, displaying an approach of dehumanizing your opponent. This is what the military has to train soldiers to do in order to get beyond the the human repugnance at killing another person. It’s a bass-ackwards way to provide leadership, bipartisan collaboration and global diplomacy.
I appreciated the Sean Penn link: “Somewhere in between [the two in the debate] there are hopeful young people following an elegant professor from Harvard in belief of a better day. I want those people to win. Bottoms up. (This is not an economic pun…or is it?)”
2. Mark Stamas | October 1st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Yeah, Penn was the best part of this post.
Seeing Nived lose the faith is tough, but I certainly haven’t helped much.
Ok Devin, toughen up on McCain, even if Chili likes him better.
The fact is, McCain is part of the problem, he knows it, we know it, he knows we know it.
Obama, on the other hand, can still decide whether or not to become Washington corrupt or not. He’s well on his way, but the condition can be cured.
Bold Obama will never be, that’s something we have to come to grips with, something that caught us unawares during the face off with Mama Clinton, and something that showed at the debate. (If only Obama had Hillary’s balls.)
At this point, Obama is the only shot at any kind of US reckoning with reality, despite his Democratic party ties, and he may be open to educating himself on issues like Nuclear Power, safe clean reliable co2 free energy and the need to end ALL fossil carbon use, a very tough row to hoe.
McCain, we know the score. All Yak and no attack, other than on very small autonomous sovereign nations while being outraged when his buddy over in Georgia recklessly calls on Russia.
This leaves us with just a pocket full of hope, but there’s always money for rope. (John Lennon paraphrased.)
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