Feeds: 
symbol identifies content for paid subscribers only.
TOWN HALL DEBATE WRAP-UP.
During the first half hour of this debate, I thought we were finally going to see the truth at the heart of the conventional wisdom: John McCain did seem better at the town hall style than Barack Obama. McCain used the old five-paragraph essay trick: restating the question at the beginning of his answers, which made him seem engaged with the interlocutor. McCain more often addressed the question-askers by name, and his silly "my friends" tic seemed more natural in this setting. Obama did seem, yes, professorial.
Yet Obama found his sea legs after the first half hour. When he spoke about civilian national service and expanding the peace corps, "so military families and our troops are not the only ones bearing the burden," he articulated his own "country first" ideology. On energy, Obama actually said straight out that Americans would have to change their lifestyles to fight global warming, from driving fuel-efficient cars to weatherizing their homes. (It would have been even better if he had actually uttered the words "drive less.") The clearest win of the night was for Obama on health care; while McCain told Tom Brokaw that health insurance is a "responsibility," Obama said matter-of-factly that health care is "a right," and that it is shameful that in the United States, cancer patients are forced to fight their insurance companies for coverage. This is an issue on which Americans simply agree with Obama and disagree with McCain, who was unable to clearly explain the tax mechanics of his own health plan.
This debate was a tedious, awkward rehashing of what was covered in the last match-up between these two. But in the face of this economic crisis, the attacks and theatrics are simply fading from view. Issues profoundly matter, and they're breaking for Obama.
--Dana Goldstein
COMMENTS (4)
First post! Woo?
Why is the comments section here so dead? It's one of my favorite blogs! Does everyone shoot their wad over at Ezra's? I mean, his food blogging is awesome, and, y'know, etc etc, but this is the flagship!
Anyways...Obama, fxck yeah!
Also, lots of GOPers calling in to NPR tonight (I know, right?), and every pro-McCain thing they say is actually a pro-Obama thing. So the McCain/Palin campaign's message is really getting across. Or that whole "what's the matter with Kansas" thing is eating its own tail, if you get my meaning.
I guess rambling on like this is no way to get first-post status. Probably some Dartmouth freshman has beaten me now....
Posted by: pk | October 7, 2008 11:46 PM
First analysis to get it right. Obama did not have a good start. I just don't get why everyone thought he did...perhaps he can't lose if the topic is the economy? Regardless, Obama mopped the floor with the old dick the last hour. All rehash, sure, but Obama pimp slapped McCranky.
Posted by: Spectator Consumer | October 8, 2008 1:16 AM
As is my custom by now, I've analyzed the words used by the speakers in the latest US presidential debate. I provide a bubble graph visualizing length of words, sentences and speech. I also investigated a gut feeling that there was something odd about the distribution of thanks between the different players (bar chart). Finally, improved "word couds" for every speaker (this time including all meaningful words). See and read about it at my Word Face-Off blog.
Posted by: fdeblauwe | October 8, 2008 5:20 AM
It's been interesting to see the McCain campaign try to appropriate parts of Obama's message: "Change", "Main St. vs. Wall St.", etc. I suspect that the McCain campaign is thinking that their candidate is obviously better than Obama, and that Obama is ahead only because of rhetorical tricks. So, the thinking goes, if McCain uses the same tricks, they will be on the same ground and McCain will mop up. Fortunately, that is a completely incorrect reading of the election.
Posted by: Scott de B. | October 8, 2008 9:32 AM