Holy cow. That's the first debate I watched of the 2 candidates. (I've listened to clips and reviews of the others.) McCain is proving to be truly odd and scary to me. Barrack listened respectfully, specifically addressed the issues McCain brought up, was calm in stating facts without undo emotion, very clearly stated his plan to handle issues, and argued very admirably. McCain on the other hand was fiery, attacking, all over the place in not answering specific questions, didn't seem capable of focusing on the discussion without thinking of the next rude thing to fling at Obama, and did not state his own plan to handle issues let alone do so clearly. And somehow one of the things that bothered me most was his tendency to flip an emotional switch, turn his head to the side and talk in what seemed to me to be a patronizing voice to Americans. Obama looked at the camera, didn't change his tone from addressing Bob, John, or me (or...Joe the plumber...) and respectfully addressed everyone.
I disagreed with Romney's analysis. He said that McCain kept Obama on the defense, on his toes essentially, all night. My opinion, rather, is that there is a gigantic difference between the 2 mens' listening and responding capacities of communication: McCain wouldn't respond to the debate on the same topic, he never looked at Obama in the eye and heard him, (except when Obama was refuting McCain's false or stretched accusations by stating facts). Obama, onthe other hand, listened intently, and directly responded to McCain...which, I might add, is a pretty foundational communication skill. SO, Romney, I don't agree that Obama responding to McCain's concerns is a FAULT--being kept on his proverbial toes. I think it is a STRENGTH--the man hears people and addresses their concerns. With facts, a cool head, and no melodramatic flare that seemed to be prevalent in all of McCain's comments. It really made me realize that listening to someone else's commentary on an event is FAR from the same as watching it yourself and gathering your own thoughts and opinions in response! (Were we watching the SAME DEBATE?!)
I realize that you may have some comments now. I welcome them =o)
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I taped it and will watch it probably tomorrow. Interesting though, because in talking with my coworkers about it today, they had the opposite view as you as far as them addressing the question. They felt as thought McCain actually answered questions with specifics, and Obama with more generalities. I think it just goes to show that you watch it through your bias. No matter how objective we try to be, what we saw was through our own individual bias.
I hadn't listened to either of them before this last debate, and for not concrete reason I was leaning McCain. I agree that McCain was pretty annoying and Obama seemed to stay more level-headed. Based off of how they presented themselves I now lean more Obama, but I'd like to see a non-biased comparision of how they stand on the top issues.
unfortunately Romney is fully committed to the McCain ticket therefore he'll always turn Obama's positives into negatives and McCain's negatives into positives. Why is it that politicians can't just be honest? He could say something like "i of course agree with John McCain on the issues but I realize that Obama is better at connecting with the audience and getting his message across."
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