27 September 2008

A couple of master debaters

I only watched parts of the debate last night. I'm sorry but nothing that was said was going to change my decision anyway and the Cubs were in Milwaukee (priorities, right?)

McCain definitely was more prepared than most people expected, but then again, shouldn't he be? I mean he's been a politician for a long time. This is riding a bike stuff for him. This whole "suspend my campaign" stuff is either a genius move to make it look like he's unstable and then so when he does well, it's like "WOW he's prepared and ready to run the country", or he's got a bunch of absolute psychos running his campaign.

Obama stayed on message and didn't screw up. Is this sad to say? I mean, one only makes that comment (and the press sure did last night afterwards) when the candidate is supposedly so far ahead that only a blunder of all blunders can derail it. But is he really that far ahead?

One thing I liked, although because it came from NBC I'm going to stay skeptical, is the "Truth Squad" or whatever the hell they called it. Supposed fact checkers who called out things that were incorrectly stated or accused during the debate. Anyone whose ever watched PTI (Pardon the Interruption) sees the producer correct what Wilbon and Kornheiser pontificated during the show about sports. So basically NBC has a bunch of interns pounding on Google to check stuff. This is fine other than some of the huge blunders recently by some of those same interns who pick up bogus Internet rumors and shoot them through to the talking heads. (Palin's hubby has a bastard child, etc..)

News isn't news anymore, they just report what's on the Internet in the attempt to "break" a story. The news world has gotten lazy and instead of actually doing their jobs, they've hired Gen Y who just surfs all day and gets their "news" that way.

In summary, no one won or lost last night. Boring. I think the long format actually plays to Obama's long-windiness, so once we get to the rapid-fire format, it'll be interesting to see how he does versus McCain who has learned that it's all about a sound byte and taking quick shots that ultimately can't be responded to because the mod wants to move on. Personally I think that if Obama doesn't whip McCain's ass in the majority of these debates, he's going to be in trouble. If the man who is known for talking and being affable can't take down the career politician, it will be used against him as it already is. In fact, the McCain campaign was so on it's game last night that they took Obama's comment that "John is Right" and instantly spun a web-0-mercial with that sound clip and the words "Barack Obama's answers from the debate".

Oh, the mud is only starting............it's gonna get very ugly over the next 39 days!!

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