10/7 Presidential Debate

[cured]

Chuck, I read the Daily Dish every 15 minutes. It's funny to think the guy was once a Bush apologist but I agree with his takes on just about everything. I don't think this was an Obama mauling...certainly Obama got the better of the more specific, detailed exchanges but otherwise it was really just another stage for them to recycle their stump speeches on. That's bad for McCain...he really needed to win this town hall tonight and he did not. He is probably going to cement his loss in Florida and possibly lose more ground in Ohio after this one. A conservative co-worker of mine said he felt this contest was over after we found out what we've found out about Palin. He thinks it'll be a landslide victory for Obama.

[Troy McClure]

I thought it was fairly even when looking at the debate only. But since it's only a month left in the process, McCain lost. Obama scored big points with me when he answered the early question about how the bailout is supposed to free up the credit freeze going on. Simple and concise. McCain still couldn't control himself in making smart-ass quips. Stuff like that doesn't work when McCain says he has a steady hand.

Jason

[Sean]

McCain again came across to the wife and I as disrespectful and condescending overall, too. "That one"?

And frankly, I think that more than this debate, the recent dirty tactics about Ayers and such are really going to sink the McCain campaign. Independents are a little more concerned with what's happening to their 401k's right now than they are with who was on the board of a charitable foundation with Obama.

Surprisingly though, Palin thought the debate went super for her fellow Maverick...

"It was a great night for America. [McCain is] proposing real plans that will work for economic recovery and energy independence," she said. "I think Barack was even less candid than usual, which I was kinda surprised. But McCain has fought on and sounded very energized, and it was a good night for him, for all of us, for all of America."

What's ahead? "It's gonna be a great 28 days to go," she said. "Taking this message of reform on the road and just having it resonate more and more every day is what I believe’s happening. And it's good. It's very good. I look forward to the 28 days."

The best thing about Palin being the VP nominee right now is that after she's made such a global fool of herself, she'll never be a Presidential nominee.

[gambit]

Oh yeah, McCain proposed the government buying up all the bad mortgages which would cost like $300 billion. I hear a lot of conservatives are angry about that since we just spent $850 billion last week on this. -3 for McCain.

But yeah, no game changers means win for Obama.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Sean

"It's gonna be a great 28 days to go," she said. "Taking this message of reform on the road and just having it resonate more and more every day is what I believe’s happening. And it's good. It's very good. I look forward to the 28 days."

The best thing about Palin being the VP nominee right now is that after she's made such a global fool of herself, she'll never be a Presidential nominee.

The sooner Palin and her complete ability to mangle and just desiccate the English language move on the better.

I mean - that sentence above in bold, makes basic sense, until the final phrase. What does she "believe is happening."? Where's the subject? What's she doing with the tenses?? It's clumsy, fugly English.

It's doing my head in. And I'm not even that much of a grammar hardass as a teacher.

Not sure this link has been thrown in yet - from Slate: Diagramming Sarah.

It's a good read if you get the time.

"There are plenty of people out there—not only English teachers but also amateur language buffs like me—who believe that diagramming a sentence provides insight into the mind of its perpetrator. The more the diagram is forced to wander around the page, loop back on itself, and generally stretch its capabilities, the more it reveals that the mind that created the sentence is either a richly educated one—with a Proustian grasp of language that pushes the limits of expression—or such an impoverished one that it can produce only hot air, baloney, and twaddle.

I found myself considering this paradox once again when confronted with the sentences of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. No one but a Republican denial specialist could argue with the fact that Sarah Palin's recent TV appearances have scaled the heights of inanity. The sentences she uttered in interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and Katie Couric seem to twitter all over the place like mourning doves frightened at the feeder. Which left me wondering: What can we learn from diagramming them?"

Here's the author's diagram for this answer from the Couric interview.

"It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where—where do they go?"




It's a doozy alright.

"In a few short weeks, Sarah Palin has produced enough poppycock to keep parsers and diagrammers busy for a long time. In the end, though, out of her mass of verbiage in the Sean Hannity interview, Palin did manage to emit a perfectly lucid diagram-ready statement that sums up, albeit modestly, not the state of the economy that she was (more or less) talking about but the quality of her thinking:

[kagenaki koe]

really funny quote from Erica Jong via huffingtonpost:

McCain looks old and ill to me. He seems to have no circulation under his papery white skin. He always looks like he is suppressing a fart. He has no cool at all.

[Deckard]

Well so much for my earlier comments about this being the game changer with the Reagan moment!

As I was watching it this time, it struck me how tetchy and childish McCain was. All that pacing around just looked weird, a bit forced. He came over as restless - and breathless. (I try to avoid criticisms based on age, but let's just say he sounded exhausted because of it, and that can't have gone down very well.)

Someone made the point that while Obama was answering his questions and McCain was in the background, you could see McCain traipsing around, sometimes walking up to the audience for no apparent reason, then back, then standing looking defensive, etc - whereas when McCain was answering, Obama chose to return to his chair and just sat and watched him, confidently smiling (not smirking), and looking totally at ease.

So on presentation, to me, it looked real bad for McCain last night. The whole shaking-hands-with-the-veteran audience member (sorry, "his friiiend") had me groaning because it was so predictable that McCain would pounce on an opportunity like that for some back-slapping. You could see it coming 30 seconds before it happened.

On substance - I have to say I was disappointed with Obama. He dodged answers so blatantly at times that it made me cringe. The sacrifice question was a classic example of this. McCain did marginally better IMO at giving answers relevant to the question - just marginally. They were still crazy answers (the mortgage solution for instance) but I thought he appeared to be making a greater attempt to connect with the question than Obama did on a couple of occasions. Perhaps I picked up on Obama's failures in this area more than McCain's because I had higher hopes for him. I don't think the debate was of a particularly high standard from either candidate to be honest.

Some of the blogs are trying to talk up the "that guy" reference, and the delay in McCain receiving Obama's handshake. Not sure either of those things reveal as much as Obama supporters maybe want them to. I think the "That guy" comment was just McCain trying to be informal/familiar but doing it clumsily. As for the handshake delay, to me it just looked as if McCain took a few seconds before realising it was aimed at him rather than his wife.

Not that it matters now. Most seem to be putting this down to another Obama win.

What stunt will be next?

[BeautifulBurnout]

Well in terms of stunts, I think the Repubs should be encouraging more of their supporters to produce their own campaign placards like this one.

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by Deckard

Well so much for my earlier comments about this being the game changer with the Reagan moment!

As I was watching it this time, it struck me how tetchy and childish McCain was. All that pacing around just looked weird, a bit forced. He came over as restless - and breathless. (I try to avoid criticisms based on age, but let's just say he sounded exhausted because of it, and that can't have gone down very well.)

Someone made the point that while Obama was answering his questions and McCain was in the background, you could see McCain traipsing around, sometimes walking up to the audience for no apparent reason, then back, then standing looking defensive, etc - whereas when McCain was answering, Obama chose to return to his chair and just sat and watched him, confidently smiling (not smirking), and looking totally at ease.

as daily kos named it: the get off my lawn variety hour.

LOL

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Originally Posted by Deckard

Well so much for my earlier comments about this being the game changer with the Reagan moment!

Reagan was a great person in the human being sense of the word. Now, as a politician, one should reflect on the nations' cocaine problem at the time, no?