TV Power Talk
The televised first Obama McCain presidential debate
The presidential debate last night about foreign policy was subdued but well worth seeing. Obama had the facts at his finger tips and successfully characterised McCain as a continuation of the Bush years.
They went after each other on spending. McCain said that earmarking was a great evil costing 18 billion a year and he would deal with it.
Obama pointed out that McCain wants to waste a great deal more than 18 billion. He wants to give away hundreds of billions of cut taxes to the wealthy, “who don't need it and didn't ask for it,” just as we are entering an economic meltdown caused by these very people.
McCain went after Obama on inexperience. It's the only weapon he seems to have, or at least the only weapon poor old McCain seemed to be able to remember.
McCain then went on to confuse the words preparation and precondition in a muddle-headed attempt to resurrect a political barb often used against Obama, who says he would be willing to negotiate without preconditions, but McCain only succeeded in sounding confused and out to score points.
Obama was well prepaird for the debate and came across as a visionary with facts at his fingertips.
He outlined the important issues about each question and then defended himself against the barbs of McCain.
The question of who has better judgement is being convincingly won by Obama and the McCain camp has latched onto the perceived success of the surge as a moment of good judgement they can claim, and they repeat it often because it's the only one they have. McCain brought this up repeatedly until Obama put him in his place by saying that the war started in 2003 not 2007.
McCain could not compete on Obama's territory of being in command of the facts and able to put together a cogent counter point to this opponents criticisms and was reduced to repeating the points that tested well with his focus groups over and over again and trying to resurrect points that had previously proved to be damaging.
Obama would convincingly refute whatever he had said, and McCain unable to think fast enough to engaging with Obama's counter points would just repeat himself.
I found this laughable but journalists, even on a lefty newspaper such as the Guardian, call this being more able to put his point across. I call it being more unashamed in his readiness to just repeat proven political point scorers over and over again.
I have to say Obama did do this as well, constantly and successfully linking McCain to the Bush presidency as a simple continuation and I heard the enjoyment in his voice every time he got a chance to do it. It was great TV and I wish Obama luck.